imnraii!
-Volume 11, No 7
»..v. ,j^j _j _r ^j J J J
r 1
modore &
r JJ
Jd£j
iiurs siBjfl
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SVJDfl'-iSlZ)
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sua
Sig
smacom ^ 524 9846
Leaders in Quality, Service & Price.
Hot New products from DKB
DKB 1202 A1200 RAM card -
Replaces the MBX1200 as the Best 32Bit RAM Card for the
A1200. Has two SIMM slots, clock and Maths Coprocessor.
2Mb version No FPU $349
4Mb version with 20Mhz 68882 $549
Other configurations available Call
High density Y es, Double your
floppy drives - n^j ^ k Space ,
Now in .good supply D^E^der
Internal $279 is the fest retoiife disk
External $299. doublerfbr Amiga.
July Specials
Pro. Page 4.1- $99
Imagine
Hard Drive Corner
SUPER
LARGE FAST SCSI 2 Drives AnrplAI
1.Q8Gb. Quantum $1499 Ql tUML
S1849
Seagate FAST IDE
Drives for A4000
$199
$499
$649
$799
1.8 Gb, Quantum
Quantum SCSI &
FAST SCSI-2
52Mb Demos $199 Extra 120Mb
105Mb Demos $299 260Mb
I20Mb $399 340Mb
450Mb
Fast SCSI-2 Drives 525Mb
27I)Mb FAST SCSI-2 $549
340Mb FAST SCSI-2 $599 Bernoulli Multidisk
525Mb fast SCSI-2 $799 System
b FAST SCSI-2 $ 1499 Transportable scs| ^ ve wftfl
35MB to 150MB removable media.
Price for Drive & cartridge.
Add-on & Replacement HDs Multidisk 150 Insider $1350
Add Extra 120Mb drive $499 Multidisk 150 T'por. $1550
Exchange 40 for 120Mb $399 Multidisk 90 Pro Insider $1260
Exchange 40 for 200Mb $499 Multidisk 90 Pro T'por. $1420
NEW Multisync monitor
from Microvitec
Finally a Multisync monitor
that scans to all Amiga modes.
Features: • .28 dot pitch
•' 800X600 non
interlace
*799
^MiCROWIfES
Dealer enquiries welcome.
New 28^K*g|^GFKa
VFastFax- 799
Data Modem
Maestro 14/100 Fax/Date modem
Maestro is still the Number One
14.400 Fax/data modem, when
compared to tiie other available
brands. $/f Qfl
"They just don't break!" ^^*ZJ
said one long-time user.
All out Maesfio modems come Willi r.PH'iix lax aoilvvarc.
Printers
Laser - Impact - Wax - Dye Sub.
HP Deskjet Portable $499
HP 520 Deskjet $699
HP 500C Colour Deskjet $899
HP 560C Colour Deskjet $1299
Laserjet 4L $1499
Frimera Wax Transfer $2099
Primera Photo Realistic Dye Sub $Call
A4000-030 Owners
Commodore 68040 CPU cants.
Qz '$995'
Call for availability.
Audio
GVP Digital Sound Studio
$1G9
Sunrise AD1 01 2 12 bit DSP Card
SCall
Sunrise AD51S 16 bit DSP Card
SCall
Accelerators
GVP A1 230 II 40MHz 030 SCSI 1Mb $999
GVP A1 230 II other con figs
SCall
GVP G-FORCE Accel 40/40/4
$1299
GVP 040 A2000 33Mhz 4Mb RAM
$1995
A2620 Accel 2Mb Ex-Demo
$399
A2620 Accel 4Mb Ex-Demo
$499
A2630 Accel 2Mb Ex-Demo
$699
A2630 Accel 4Mb Ex-Demo
$799
G-Foree 25MHz Ex-Demo
$799
Base Machines
CD32
SCall
Amiga 1200 all models HD
SCall
Amiga 4000 6B030 CPU 6Mb 1 20 HDS Call
Amiga 4000 68040 CPU 6Mb 120HD$Call
Amiga 4000 68040 Tower
SCall
Emulators
GVP PC2SB IBM Emulator
$199
XT Bridgeboard Ex-Demo
$100
AT Bridgeboard Ex-Demo
$249
Golden Gate 386SX Bridqeboard
$995
Golden Gate 386SX Ex-Demo
$€99
EMPLANT Emulator Card
$799
AT-Once Emulator Ex-Demo
$199
Hard Drives (Bare Drives Only)
120Mb HO for A1 200
$499
120Mb HD swap tor 40Mb
$399
200Mb HD for A1200 swap for 40MbS499
Additional 40Mb HD for A1200
$249
260Mb Seagate IDE HD for A4000
$499
450Mb Seagate IDE HD for A4000
$799
525Mb Seagate IDE HD for A4O00
$999
- i '■. ■:.:-.
170Mb Quantum SCSI HO S399
270Mb Quantu m FAST SCSI-2 5549
Xetec CD ROM Driver Software Kit $149
Cinemorph
Deluxe Paint AG A
$99
$150
Monitors
340Mb Quantum FAST SCSI-2 S599
525Mb Quantum FAST SCSI-2 $799
Devpac 3
Directory Opus
$165
$109
10B4S Stereo Monitor
$299
1 .08Gb Quantum FAST SCSI-2 S1499
Microvitec Multisync Monitor
$799
Disk Expander
$79
1 .8Gb Quantum FAST SCSI-2 S1849
Sony 14 Trinitron
S899
Distant Suns v4.1
$99
Syquest 88Mb C Removable w/Cart S749
Syqueat 105Mb SCSI-2 Rem w/Cart $699
NEC 3D Multisync Monitor Ex-Demo$699
Electric Thesaurus
Essence for Imagine
$59
$99
RAM Expansion
Syquasl 270Mb SCSI-2 Rem W/Cort $949
250Mb Tape Ca rtridge S59
Final Copy II UK
Final Writer
$139
$219
A601 1Mb BAM for AS00
$135
44 Mb Syquest Cartridge S149
ChipEx 2Mb CHIP RAM with Agnus S349
Fractal Universe
$69
8BMb Syquest Cartridge $189
DKB1202 RAM Caret OK No FPU
$199
Glgamem
$199
1 05Mb Syquest Cartridge $125
DKB1202 RAM Card 68882 OK
$249
GPFax
$149
Bernoulli 1 50Mb Insider w/Cart $1350
DKB 1202 RAM Card 2Mb
$349
Hi-Soft High Speed Pascal
$199
Bernoulli 150Mb Transport w/Cari S1550
DKB1202 RAM Card 2Mb 68882
S399
Hi-Soft Power Basic
$119
150Mb Bernoulli Cartridges $280
DKB1202 RAM Card 4Mb
$499
Hotlinks 1.1
$89
Hard Drive Controllers
OKB1 202 RA M Card 4 M b 68882 $549
2Mb PCMCIA Card for A60O/A12OO $299
Hotlinks Additions
Image FX
$159
$449
GVP Impact 500 HD 52Q Ex-Demo 3499
4Mb PCMCIA Card lor A60O/A120O S449
Imagernaster R/T
$229
$749
Imagine V2
$349
GVP Impact 500 HD 120Q $949
RAM Chips
Intro Cad Plus
$99
GVP Impact 2000 HC3 No Drive $349
GV P I mpa ct 2G0O 520 $499
KDV5
Megadisc
$20
$17.«
1 Mb x 8 SIMM Ram (GVP)
$100
GVP I mpact 2000 1 20Q $749
1Mb 32-blt SIMM for GVP Accel.
$100
Montage
$499
G VP 1 mapct 4008 No D rive $349
4Mb 32-bit SIMM for GVP Accel.
$399
Morph Plus
$299
A590 20Mb HD OMb RAM Ex-Demo$399
16Mb 32-bit SIMM for GVP
$1995
Morphus for Imagine
$169
A590 20Mb HD 1Mb RAM Ex-Demo S449
4Mb 32-bit SIMM for A4O00
$349
Pagestream 2.2
$159
A590 20Mb HD 2Mb RAM Ex-Demo $499
4Mb ZIP Static Column RAM A30O0 $499
Powercopy 111 Copier
$99
Commodore A2091 Ex-Demo $149
GVP SCSI/HAM A1200 No FPU OK $499
2Mb DIP Ram for A59Q/A2091
$199
Professional Calc V2
Professional Draw V3
$169
$169
Software
GVP SCSVRAM A12O0 No FPU 1Mb$599
GVP SCSI/RAM A12O0 No FPU 2Mb$699
Professional Page V4.1
Proper Grammer II
$99
$89
Adorage
$199
GVP SCSI/RAM A1200 No FPU 4Mb$799
Aladdin 4D
$529
Quarterback
$95
GVP SCSI/RAM A12O0 882 4Mb $899
Amiback 2 Tools
$99
Quarterback Tools
$149
Z3 Fastlane SCSI-2 Controller $895
Anim Workshop
$99
Real 3D V2
$799
CD ROM Drives
Arexx Cookbook
$89
Rexx Plus Compiler
$209
Art Department Pro v2.5
$275
SASC Leffice C V6.3
$249
NEC CDR-210 External with s/w $799
Art Expressions
$275
Scala 500
S149
N EC CD R-25 External with s/w $399
Bars & Pipes Pro V2
$399
Scala Multimedia MM211
$299
NEC CDR-600 Triple Spin with s/w $1099
Broadcast Title r Super Hi-Res
$299
Scala Multimedia MM300
$499
NEC CD ROM Drives.
NEC CDR-25 External Portable
Single Spin - Incl. Xetec driver $399
-NEW-
NEC CDR-210 External Double
spin rmiltisession No more Caddies!
NEW Low price Incl. Xetec dvr$799
NEC CDR-600 - External Triple
Spin Incl. Xetec driver $1099
tolite-
your CD32I
a Kodak
io CD viewer !
■s no extra
ware!
Call for pricing.
MPEG
Movie Titles
All $59
Andrew lloyd Webber
Collection
Black Rain
Bon Jovi -
Keep the Faith
Brian Adams -
Waking Up The
Neighbours
Ghost
Hunt For Red October
Naked Gun 2.5
Patriot Games
Star Trek VI
The Cure
Tina Turner -RIO '88
Top Gun
Cartoon Carnival
Space Ace.
1 1*1 J '•
kr>
tlH nsfir files,
Audi
^p$*
CD 32 Titles
Zool
$69
Microcosm
$129
Sleepwalker
$69
Nigel Mansell's VWCps$69
James Pond 2
$69
D-Generation
$69
Deep Core
$69
Whale's Voyage
$69
Pinbafl Fantasies
$69
Softfaces
$95
GVP Impact Vision Splitter
$2499
Superbase Pro 4
$359
GVP EGS Spectrum 2Mb
$995
True Print 24
$109
GVP GLock Genlock Only
$699
TVPaint Retina
$699
GVP GLock VGA
$2149
Vista Pro V3
$99
GVPTBC NoSMPTE
S14S9
Workbench V2.1 w/Rom
$99
GVPTBC SMPTE
Nerlkl Genlock
Opalvision 24-bit Display Csrd
Vidit2
vidua ht
SCall
$1199
CD ROM Software
5995
$239
Amine!
$59
$449
Battlechess
$59
Vldl24 RT
$649
CDDemo Vol 1
CDDemo Vol 2
CDPD Vol 1
CDPD Vol 2
$69
$69
$69
$69
VLAB Y/C Framegrabber
$699
Printers
Citizen 24 pin colour
$499
CDPD Vol 3
$69
Citizen printers
SCall
fiold Fish 1-1000
$69
HP DeskJet Portable
$499
Microcosm
$129
HP 520 B&W DeskJet
$S99
17BIT Collection
$99
HP S00C Colour DeskJet
$699
17bit Continuation
$59
HP 560C Colour DeskJet
S1299
SIMCITY
$69
HP 4L Laser
$1499
XenonZ $49
Spare Parts & Cables
68882 Maths Co-p'r for A4000/030 $139
Star SJ- 1 44 Heat Fusion Colour
$1499
Modems
Maestro 14,400 Data Fax Modem
$499
2.04/2.05 Kickstart ROM
$99
Maestro 28.8K Data Fax Modem
$799
8375 Agnus
3-way Internal SCSI Coble
PAR NET Cable
$99
$35
$35
Netcomm VFsst 28.8K Fax/Daia M1 1 F $799
Miscellaneous
A1200 clock
S59
A120O dual HD cable
High Density Floppy Drive Extern
High Density Floppy Drive Intern:
$49
Mice & Accessories
al $299
1 5279
Axelen Optical Mouse
Jin Colour Mouse
$89
$39
GVP 10 Extender
Keyboard Skin (suit all Ami gas)
$299
$39
Mouse Master
$69
Kiekboard Plus
$59
Pen Mouse
$59
Kickstart 2.04/2.05 ROM
Monitor Adaptor 23-1 5 pin
Monitor Switch Box
Quicknet Ethernet Card
$69
Video Products
$99
DCTV
$499
$475
Electronic Design Y/C Genlock
$799
Rocllte External Floppy Drive
$165
Ex - Demo
All with warranty. Call for availability
Quantum Hard Drives
SCall
Amiga 2000 base machine
$349
External Floppy Drives
$99
XT Bridgeboard
S1C0
AT Bridgeboard
$399
AT-Once 286/16
$199
GVP Impact 500 No Drive
$300
GVP Impact 500 HD 520
$599
A590 20Mb HD OMb RAM
$349
AS90 20Mb HD 1Mb RAM
$399
A590 20Mb HD 2Mb RAM
$499
A2091 HD Controller
S149
Flicker Fixers from
$249
1084S Stereo Monitor
$249
NEC 3D Multisync Monitor
$699
68030 Accelerators - call for details
Retina 2Mb & 4Mb
SCall
Visit our showroom at
Suite 1 7, 20 - 24 Gibbs Street, Miranda -
right behind Miranda Station.
Our Guarantee to You: At Sigmacom You will receive great service and
competent advice on all new & used Amiga products.
If you are looking for something that \ T - "V
we do not have advertised, please \ \
call as we have a lot more In stock X/
than we have space to list.
\i
Mau&csm
(02)
Sigmacom
524 9846 i
■Mobile: (018) 25 7471
• Fax: (02) 540 4554
Suite 17, 20 - 24 Gibbs Street,
Miranda NSW Australia 2228
Phone Orders Welcome
Online ordering - Coll Labyrinth BBS (02) 580 5881
AGC
GVPProi
**> EGS 28/24 $ TtiUM
Fully supports the Display Database starting with Kickstait 2.04
Any program using workbench-type screens runs on SPECTRUM
in high-resolution colour.
Paint package includes power features like • Pantograph ■ turbo
airbrush * Real-Time 16-miliion colour painting * multiple images
at once on high-resolution screens (up to 1600x1280) ■ compositing
■ manipulating • Special EGS libraries (to develop professional,
high resolution, true colour applications thai are portable, reliable,
and productive) • flexible Relargetable Graphics Operating
System ■ Amiga Pass-Through (allows native displays to reach the
monitor under software control. This feature eliminates the need for
two monitors without sacrificing features.)
WmXBms
GVPTBCPIus
Time Based Corrector/~ u Y^
24-bit Frame Grabber
Professional Composite & Y/C video SFX
generator with real time 1 6.7m colour frame-
grabber, with or without SMPTE.CaH for full details & Specs
With SMPTE $Call - Without SMPTE $1499
GVP A4000 SCSI +
A40OO SCSI card with space for up to 8Mb RAM - $349
GVP 40Mhz 68040 Card for
A4000/A3000
An Accelerator for all A4000's and A3000. AIBB tests rate the
I maths at up to 25 times a standard A4000/040! A4000/040
trade-in CPU boards accepted. 4Mb RAM std. SCSI-2 optional
i i add-on. A3000 or A4000/030 $2799 A4000/040 with
Trade -in $1995
GVP AT 230 Series II
40MHz/50Mhz 68030 +SCSI & RAM
This A 1200 combo board has either a 40 or 50Mhz 68030 processor,
optional FPU. up to 32Mb 60ns 32-bit RAM & SCSI controller.
A1230 Scries II with 40Mhz, IMbRam $799
Call for price on SOMhz, SCSI, more RAM, FPU, etc.
aGv^ 16-bit PCMCIA sound Digitizer
Suits A600 and A1200. CD Guaiity Sampling rate in full
16-btt. Call for detaiis.
PAL Personal Amination Recorder -from DPS
Record & Playback full 24-bit, 25fps anim's - Here soon. Call for details.
X-Calibur lor A4000/040
Almost double average A4000 performance with 25Mhz or 33Mhz
040, addressing 64-bit on-board RAM, tip to 128 Mb std SIMMs.
Call for details & Pricing
■Brilliance
■Full featured Paint
[Package offering best
l2D animation 3279
Final Copy II
Power WP 'Scalable
Fonts ♦ On-screen
Drawing- 5139
Gigamem
Virtual Memory driver
now supports 030 with
WIMU&040. $T39
ImageFX
Image processing with
built In Virtual RAM &
PtotoCD support £449
Bars & Pipes
The very best
MIDI/Sequencer
software there Js £399
CineMorph
Static t Full Motion
Mcrphing, animation fn
24tttandeblt. S9Q |
Deluxe Music
Stave - based music
corriposftlon and
playback $239
Final Writer
Performance WP • 120
PS fonts ■ extenswe
features. £213
SUPER II ■
■ SCMASotej , - '
i-szari t^
SCALA MM300 S499
Echo contra) VCR &
Camera for died edrfing
finoin ScripLIn stock Now!
!VldlAmiga12
|Dlgltlsingridw&swfor
real lime composite &
S-Video capture, 3239
Vidi24 RT
Full 24blt quality
digitising for all Am. gss.
Sale Price &fi«
Vista Pro
Fractal Landscape
generating software at
its best. S99
fiaal3D V2
Simply the best 3D on
any platform anywhere
near this price. ?799
Montage
At last full 24bit titling
with direct AGA24bit
card support. S499
AdPro Version 2.5
Massive improvements,
multiple screens/res,
loola bexs, . ^275
Deluxe Paint AG A
AGA version -Full 24
bit painting.
fr1 Paint Software, £150
Directory OPUS
HD & Floppy Interface
Customise functions &
buttons. $109
Bnriifiin
Power Copy
Simple disk to disk &
copy work. Hardware
included. $69
AmiBack Plus Tools
Survive Hard Disk
backups or disasters,
plus optimise. 599
MMVMK'' ' -.
ProPage 4.1
This Ad was created
entirely, concept to fifrn,
on Pro Page 4,1 $@B
At Sigmacom AMIGA Software still leads
in power, performance and price.
ProCalc
Spreadsheet power &
(unction + 123 wk me
compattole. St 69
Our Guarantee to You: At Sigmacom You
will receive great service and courteous
advice on all new & used Amiga products.
Ph; (02)
Sigmacom
524 9846
All prices subject to change without notice.
• Mobile: (01 8) 25 7471 • Facsimile: (02) 540 4554
Suite 17, 20-24 Gibbs St. Miranda NSW Australia 2228
Phone Orders Welcome
Online ordering - Call Labyrinth BBS (02) 580 5881
CONTENTS
Features
1 3 Word worth 3.0
First Impressions
Now with dozens of new features,
and a whole new interface
20 Disk Expander
Review
Compress files and programs on
the fly for extra space
28 Imagine 3.0
Review
Same interface, but a lot
more power
Articles
17 TypeSmith 2.02
Convert or create outline and
bitmap fonts
24 Migraph MS1200
Affordable colour scanning from a
flat bed
42 Networking Intro
A guide to the business of
connecting Amigas especially for
beginners
46 PARNET
Budget networking
66 Pagestream 3.0
An update on delivery
85 Video Creator CD32
Create rave multimedia video clips
using your CD32 and FMV or CD!
84 Edutainment
The Adventures of Noddy - now
your kids can relive the fun of
Toytown
Cover: Rendered in Imagine 3.0,
by Peter J. Ward. Image 1500 x 2000 pixels, 24 bit.
10
33
36
50
56
59
62
65
69
73
75
77
79
89
92
AMIGA Review
July, 94- Vol 11, No 7
Regulars
Editorial
News & Products
Media Watch
Letters
Help Line
HotPD
AMOS
CanDo
ARexx
Education
Real 3D
Online
Blitz
Desktop
Publishing
C64
Entertainment
Art Gallery
The new
Review
I Welcome to your new 100% Amiga
desktop published Amiga Review! Yes
folks, at long last Australian
Commodore and Amiga Review is
produced using Amiga computers all the
way to film.
There's a few other important
changes this month too! Yes, our cover
price has gone up by $1, but we've
thrown in an extra 16 pages of editorial
too. No, there are not more ads, but
more articles, more columns, and we
hope an even better looking publication.
Over the next few months, you'll see a
lot more Amiga in Amiga Review - so
stay tuned.
On the Commodore front, Samsung
has put its final bid in place and now the
final decision is in the hands of the
liquidators.
We can look forward to a decision
some time in July. Given that the official
closure of Commodore International
was only in late May, negotiations have
moved fairly quickly.
It's been an interesting time for us to
see who was prepared to stand by the
Amiga and who would depart to greener
pastures. We're confident the Amiga is
here to stay - regardless of who
produces it. The machine has many
strong supporters, lots of great software
and plenty of comitted users.
Once things are back up to speed, we
can look forward to some amazing new
Amigas, and a big push in the CD-ROM
arena. As part of the bigger Amiga
Review, we've included a 4 page CD
section covering CDTV and CD32 titles.
Something some of you won't like is
the smaller games section. That was a
tough decision, but one we decided had
to be made. The best thing about the
Amiga is not the games - although there
are some impressive titles out there with
more on the way. Amiga is more than
that.
What's more, in Australia it's pretty
tough to try competing with other
magazines from the heart of countries
where the most popular entertainment
software is produced - the U.K. and
Europe
So, we figured we would leave the
beefy game reviews to the liies of
Amiga Format and stick to keeping you
informed more in other areas.
That's not to say we won't be running
game reviews - as you'll see in this
issue. In fact, our new game reviews
will be a lot more hard hitting and the
games more thoroughly tested than ever
before.
We're still on the look out for
columnists and regular contributors. So
if you have something to add, please
phone or write.
Enjoy!
- A ndrew Farrell
□
Usher
Storm Front Studios
Editor
Andrew Farrell
Contributing Editor
Daniel Rotter
Art Director
Stuart Farrell
Advertising
Ken Longshaw
Film
Access Graphics
Distribution
NDD
Printer
Hamianprhit
Subscription Hotline
008 252 879
PQ BOX :88v Gtodeivlile V 1 1
Editorial
tel 02 879 7455
tax 02 8164714
Advertising
tel 02 81712509
(c) 1994 Storm Front Studios
All iirtides appearing in (his
J^^^J'Jjfc-ii
AMIGA Review
Titel & Graphics
Trick effects
enjoy your
rafting tour
Alpha channel
J Separate microprocessor
Alpha channel
Auto facie control
• Video-Enhancer
Y-C and composite
excellent quality
# Standby mode
Software control
> For all Amigas and PCs
via Pegasus PC->Video
Authorized Dealers
Headlam Computers West Leederville
Phone: (09) 388 36 66
Computer Discounts Chippendot
Phone: (02) 281 74 1 1
Amitech Cronulla
Phone: (02) 544 1874
Amadeus Computers Glenriorie
Phone: (02) 652 2? 12
Computa Magic P/L Moonee Pnds.
Phone: (03) 326 0! 33
Maxwell's Computer Center Abbotsford
Phone: (03)419 68 11
Phoenix Microtechnologies Keswick
Phone: (08) 293 87 52
Videos Audio Brisbane Toowong
Phone: (07) 870 03 00
Video&Audio Gold Coast Southport
Phone (07S) 91 42 24
The Floppy Shop Kobart
Phone:(002)23 56 19
MVE Computer Supptiies P/L Croydon
Phone: (03) 72 56 255
Computer Affair Willoughby
Phone: (02) 41 7 51 55
Computer Outpost Shop 7 Mono Wale
Phone: (02) 979 58 33
Computer Bits Shop 1 3 Armidale
Phone: (067) 71 27 27
IIOGICO
MULTIMEDIA
Authorised Amiga Dealer
Visit Our Showroom.
397 ENMORE ROAD
MARRICKVILLE NSW 2204
Phone Orders:
(02)519 6719
FAX: (02) 519 7213
SOFTWARE
Title Members Price
LOP
A-Train
84.95
83.95
A-train Const. Sat
47.95
49.95
Abandond Places II
94.95
89,95
Alien 3
64.95
69.95
Alien Breed 2
74.95
79.95
Apocalypse
S4.95
69.95
Armour Geddon II
54.95
69.95
Ashes Of Empire
S4.95
89.95
B1 7 Flying Fortress
74.95
79.95
Battle Use '93
64.95
89.95
BCKId
64.95
69.95
Body Blows
64,96
69.95
Body Blows Galactic
64.95
69.95
Brutal Sports Footbal
64.95
59.95
Burning Rubber
64.95
69.95
Campaign ll
64.95
89.95
Cannon Fodder 1
47.95
49.95
Captive II
74.95
79.95
Champ Manager 93
64.95
S9.95
Champ Manager 94
64.95
69.95
Champ Manager Italia 54.95
69.93
Chaos Engine
64.95
69.95
Chuck Rock II
64.95
69.95
Civilisation
74.95
79.95
Combat Air Patrol
74.95
79.95
Contraptions
64.96
69.95
Cool Spot
74.95
78.95
Darkmere
74.95
79.95
Dark Seed
74.95
79.95
Desert Strike
7/4.95 7S.95
Dune II
74.95
7S.95
Elite II • Frontier
74.B5
79.95
Eye of Beholder II
64.95
69.95
F1 Racing
64.95
79.95
F117AMJahtHawk
84.95
89.95
Flashback
64.95
69.95
Global Gladiators
64.95
69.95
Goal -Kick Off 2
74,95
79.95
Gooch's Cricket
74,95
79.95
Gooch 2nd Innings
74.95
79.95
Grand Prix
74,95
79.95
Gunship 2000
84.95
89.95
Heart of China
64.95
69.95
Helmdall II
74.95
79.95
Hired Guns
64.95
69.95
Historylrne
74.95
79,95
Humans II
74.95
79.S5
Indiana Jones Atlantis 84.95
89.95
ANIMATION &
John Madden footbai
Jurassic Park
47,95
54.95
49.95
59.95
RENDERING
Legacy
64.95
59.95
64.95
69.95
Aladdl n 4D New V3 4B9.95 499 .95
Lemmings II
74.95
79.95
Animation Workshop 89.95 99.95
74.95
79.95
Brilliance 249.95 259.95
64.95
69.95
Caligarl£4 465.95 475,95
64.95
69.95
Deluxe Paint V4.1 B4.95 99.96
74.95
79,95
Deluxe Paint AG A 139,95 1+9.95
PGA Tour Golf
47.95
49.95
Distant Suns V4.2 84.95 89.95
39.95
39.95
Essence for Imagine 64.95 39.95
Finball Fantasies
74.95
79.95
Essence Imagn Vol2 159,95 1 69.95
64.95
69.95
Imagine V3.0 $CALL
Putty
47.95
49.95
Interchange Plus V3 189.95 133.95
74.95
79.95
Morph Plus 269.95 279.95
47.95
49.95
Morph for Imagjie 109.95 119.95
RuSes of Engagemt I
94.95
99.95
Pixel 3D Pro + Anim 249.95 £59.95
64.95
69.95
PSaymation 389.95 399.95
Secret Monkey Is 2
74.95
79.95
Real 3D V£ 739.95 749.95
64,95
69,95
Scenery Animator 4 89.95 99.95
84.95
89.95
Wsianarie 129.95 139.95
Sim City
74,95
79.95
Vista Pro V3.0 94.95 99.95
Sim Earth
Sim Life
Simo*i the Sorcerer
84.95
84.95
54,95
89.95
89.95
89.95
DESKTOP VIDEO &
IMAGE PROCESSING
74 95
79.95
Space Hulk
Streetfigtoterll
Syndicate
7495
79.95
Art Dap Pro V2.3 269,95 279.95
74,95
79.95
Art Dep Pro Control 89.95 99.95
84.95
39.95
Art Dep Pro Tools 209.95 219.95
7 ■
79,95
Art Dep Conversion 79.95 S9.9S
84.95
89.95
Broadcast TitlerHR 419.95 429.95
Ultima VI
34.95
89.95
Deluxe Video 3 94.95 99.95
Wing Commander
Yo ! Joe!
39.95
64.95
94.95
69.95
Hyperbook 94.95 99.95
I mage FX V1 .5 429.95 439.95
Zco\2
64.95
69,95
Montage 24 465.95 495.95
ScaiaSQO 139.95 149.95
ScalaMM£11 389.95 399.95
TV Paint 2 Pro 5S9.9S 599.95
Video Director 189.96 199.95
A1200 AGA TITLES I
Allan Breed a
74.95
79.95
Body Blows Galactic
Burning Rubber
74.95
64.95
79.95
69.95
^H*WH;;.V,JLLtH
Chaos Engine
64.95
84.95
69.95
89.95
Introcad Cad Pkts 89.95 99.95
64.95
69.95
Ultra Design Pro 219.95 229,95
64.95
69.95
X-CADEQ00 339.95 349.95
Morph
74.95
79.95
X-CAD3OO0 689.95 699.95
Plnball Fantasies
Ryder Cup
74.95
64,95
84.95
89.95
^^mdimu**^^
84.95
89.95
84,95
39.95
B.E.S.T. V3.0 389,95 399,95
Soccer Kid
74.95
79.95
Home Accounts 2 129.95 139.95
Star Trek
34.95
89.95
Maxiplan V4 169,95 179,95
Zool
64.95
69,95
Mini Office 139,95 149.95
Pro. Calc 2.0 209 .95 21 9.95
WORD PROCESSING &
DESKTOP PUBLISHING
Art Expression
259.95 269.95
Final Copy 2
139.95 149.95
Final Writer
209.95 219.95
Fantasia 300 Fonts
79,95 89.95
Kindwords 3
119.95 129.95
Oulline Fonts
249,95 259.95
PageSetter 3
99.95 109.95
PageSlream V3.0
JCALl
Pelican Press
94.95 99.95
Printmaster Plus
89.95 99.95
Pro Draw V3.0
189.95 199.95
Pro Page V4.1
169.95 179.96
ProTett V5.0
269,95 £79.95
ProWrile V3.3
94.95 99.95
Soft Faces 1-4 (ea)
94.95 99,95
TypeSmMi V2.0
209.95 £19.95
WordWorth V2.0
169.95 179.95
^■'H« : ^
Superbase Pers, 4
189.95 179,95
Superbase Pro. 4
319.95 329.95
j^M«:1!MH:l<-
Amos Pro
159.95 169.95
Amos Pro Compiler
69.95 79.95
Arexx
79,95 89.95
Can Do V2.5
209.35 21995
CygnusEdProV3,5 109.95 119.95
Easy Amos
84.95 89.95
Hisoft Baste Pro
179.95 189.95
Hisoft DevPac 3
119,95 129.95
Hisoft Extend
79.95 89,95
HiSpeed Pascal
SAS Lattice C6.5
189.95 199.95
SCALL
WSheH
114.95 119.85
^^Miimiu
Action Replay 3
169.95 179.95
Ami Back * Tools
109.95 119.95
C-NetV3.0(New)
259.95 £69.95
Cross Dos V5
59,95 69.95
Directory Opus 4.1
105.95 115,95
Disk Master
49.95 59.B5
GigaMem V3 New
189.95 199.95
PowerCopy Pro 3
79.95 89.95
Quarterback V6 (new) 94.95 99. 95
Quarterback Tools
109.95 119.95
Synchro Express 3
109,95 119.95
MUSIC & SOUND
Elite II
Frontier
$79.95
Sim
Life
S89.95
MORTAL
KOMBAT
S69.95
Apocalypse
S79.95
Second
SAMURAI
S69.95
•SSjOSP
«apg
Legacy of
SORASIL
S79.95
LOTUS
TRILOGY
S79.95
Micro
Machines
S69.95
Jurassic
Park
$69.95
Simon the
Sorceror
S89.95
Star Trek
AGA
$89.95
The
SETTLERS
$79.95
Liberation
Captive II
$79.95
Audio Engineer Jnr
Audio Engineer Plus
Bars a Pipes Pro 2
Deluxe Music 2
Digital sound studio
DrTs Tiger Cub
Super Jam 1.1
179.95
329,95
419.95
179.95
169.95
129.95
159.95
189.95
339.95
429.95
189.95
179.95
139.95
169.95
HARDWARE
ACCELERATORS &
RAM EXPANSIONS
A500
51 2k Ram Expansion w/CkKk 569
GVP A530+ '030 401*1 Mb Ram $999
VXL 030 25 Mhz No FPU 0Mb 1375
VXL 030 25 Mh! 68882 FPU $574
VXL32bilRam2MbE>lfj. Suit VXL 030 S475
A600
1Mb Ram Exp. w/Oock $119
1 Sbli PC WCIA Credit Card Ram 2Mb $279
16bt PCMCIA CreolCard Ram 4Mb $469
A1200
GVPA1S00 SCSI Nd FPU 0Mb $519
GVP A1 200 SCSI 33MHz wFFU 4MB $949
GVPA12300306aBB24oMta4lto $1175
GVP Series II A 1230:'03C.-'K\1h^ , 4WD $1049
GVP Swiss II A -IzmxmibzHWo $1450
GVP SCSI Kit la suit above S200
GVP FPU Kit 63682 4Miz $289
GVP FPU Kl 69802 501*12 $Call
MBX 1200 Ram Card 88181 Ok $27S
MBX 1200 Ram Card 6S881 1Mb $349
MBX 1 200 Ram Card 68881 2Mb $499
MBX 1 200 Ram Card 6888 1 4Mb $599
A2000
GVP G-Force 030 2SMte 68682 1 Mb $750
GVPG-Force03040Mriz6eB82«b $1299
GVP G-Foree 040 33Mte 4Mb 60ns SCall
A4000
DKB3128Rame«> up to 128Mb Mbit $749
GVPA4O0»HardCardupto8MblfM $349?
Faster* SCSI II Bpansem Card £995
A500, A2000 Chip RAM Expansion
DKBMegaChlp board $369
Title
I I II II I II ^m
Members Price LRP
AMIGA CD32
Alfred Chicken
Arabian Nights
Beavers
D-Gsneration
Deep Cora
James Pond 2
John Barnes Football
Jurassic Park
liberation
Mean Arenas
Morprt
Nigel Mansell
Morph
Over Kin / Lunar-C
Plnball Fantasies
Prey
Reach Out For Gold
Sensible Soccer
Sleep Walker
Surf Ninja
Total Carnage
Trolls
Whales Voyage
Winter Super Sports
Zool
$685 $695
64.00 69.00
64.00 09.00
64.00 69.00
84.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
64.00 39.00
84.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
6400 69,00
64.00 69.00
64.00 69,00
64 00 59. CO
64.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
64.00 59.00
64,00 S9.00
64.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
64.00 69,00
64.00 69.00
64.00 69.00
Overnight Delivery $ 9.95
LOGICARD MEMBERSHIP DETAILS
Enclose $10.00 with your initial order & receive:
; Catalogue. * Membership prh ilege card and PIN number
\i least 5% discount. * Discount vouchers and unbeatable
special odcrs. Safe hundreds uf dollars on recommended
reluil prices. * Joining a club wah over 2000 members.
Our objective and puliev is to be as competitive as possible with
the lowest prices on all our prwtucts. It is no longer possible tor
us to list all the products we sell. rfyou don't see it please call.
All prices aud availability are subject to charge without notice.
Name: , .
Address:
Mail Order Form to:
PO Box 572 Marrickville NSW 2204
Post Code:
Qty
Phone: Date Sent:
□ Bankcard Q Mastercard DVisa rjAMEX
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nchZ Mer ^ n-m rm
_ Cheque ^ I I /rH —
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Exp. Date [
| Signature:
Total
Price
5.00
Home
Computer
Show Report
Sydney's Home Computer
Show attracted over 30,273
visitors last week, some of
who were Amiga enthusiasts.
Sadly, the World of Com-
modore initially planned to be
part of the event did not hap-
pen.
However, there was a
small representation from
Sigmac&m, Bytes and
Games. Amiga Review and
Amadeus.
Despite the current stand-
still at Commodore, there
were a number of interesting
new products released and we
even spotted a couple of
Amiga 1200s for sale along
with a few Full Motion Video
modules for CD32.
Eager buyers snapped up
these last remaining items,
joining what developed into a
frantic market atmosphere by
the show's end on Sunday
evening.
GP -Software previewed a
revamped version of Ea-
syledgers, following their re-
cent aquisition of the package
from Sybiz. The new version
sports a brand new Work-
bench 2 compliant interface,
requires a joystick port key to
operate, and promises to fix
some of the program's rather
annoying bugs.
I had a quick play with the
new version, and can report it
has a very snappy feel and is
much easier to use than the
earlier program.
Amadeus Computers
released the new Microvitec
monitor at the show. De-
signed as a replacement for
the Commodore 1942, the
Microvitec offers improved
picture quality along with
auto-centering. This feature is
vital for use with AGA Ami-
gas, where switching screens
can mean changing scan rates.
With auto-centering, the new
picture will always be in the
middle of the monitor, unlike
the old 1942 which requires
manual repositioning using
the horizontal adjustment
knob whenever you change
scan rates.
RRP is $799. For more in-
formation contact Amadeus
on (008) 808 503.
Amadeus also had Digita's
new Wordworth 3.0 on display
- previewed elsewhere in this
month's Amiga Review.
There's lots of fancy new
features, like tables and text
effects, but they're hampered
by sluggish performance and,
according to some sources, a
number of annoying bugs.
Digita are about to ship an
update to the original release
which they promise will fix
everything.
Digita has also updated its
personal finance program,
which has been renamed
Money Matters. The new ver-
sion requires Workbench 2.x
and sells for $129,
□
PhotoCD
support now
on your CD32
PhotoLite. distributed by
Sigmacom and supported by
Tech Media, allows access of
PhotoCDs from a CD32.
Commodore's games console
actually has a multi-session
PhotoCD capable CD-ROM
drive - which means it can be
used to view PhotoCD 's
which have had more than
one lot of images stored on
them.
PhotoLite turns the game
controller into a simple
forward and backward selector
to step through the images on
the disk. Images are viewed
in 256,000 colours. A simple
slide show option is
included. Although designed
exclusively for CD32, the
software will also work fine
on any A4000 or A1200 with
a suitable CD-ROM drive.
Photo Pro, a professional
PhotoCD package for the
A4000/1200 is expected
soon, but will require 4Mb of
RAM.
Right now, a number of
photo processing bureaus
offer a film to disc service.
PhotoCDs are an ideal alter-
native to scanning images for
presentations or desktop
publishing. For more infor-
mation contact Sigmacom on
(02) 524 9846.
IMPORTANT: Please FAX
your
product
release information to
(02)
816
4714 or
post them to:
Amiga Review,
PO Box 288,
Gladesvi lie 2111.
AMIGA Review
■ ■ :-:-->::::,-,.,
Afield
Studio Print
Manager
Getting the result on the
side of the box can be a real
trick, especially when it
comes to colour printers.
However, the new Studio
print management and drive
package from the famous
Wolf Faust is no available
from GSOFT.
It promises to deliver
quality output from most
modern printers. Features
include support from 24 and
48 pin heads, 16.8 million
colours or 256 grey shades,
ink compensation, gamma
correction, multiple dithering
methods, banding elimination
routines, poster modes, com-
pressed graphics support and
special Pagestream drivers.
RRP is $99.
Dealer enquiries are
welcome. For more information
contact GSOFT on (08) 254
2261.
□
Etathurst
Amiga Store
Westcomp Computers are
keen to have all those west of
the great divide in New South
Wales know that they are
alive and well, and offering
continued support for the
Amiga.
Lou Lucano's store sells
Amiga hardware, software
and peripherals as well as a
smattering of Commodore 64
stuff. Westcomp was once
Commodore Education Dealer
of the year. Check 'em out at
96 Bentinck Street, Bathurst
or call (063)32 2611.
When we spoke to Lou he
even had a couple of AI200's
left! □
DPS Personal
Animation
Recorder
Information is starting to
trickle in of yet another
contender in the non-linear
digital video editing stakes.
TV Graphics, a Melbourne
based company, are currently
supplying demo tapes of the
Personal Animation Recorder.
The system consists of two
cards - the DPS DR-3150
provides genlockable playback
and the DPS AD-3000 does
the grunt work of capturing
video. The 3150 provides
simultaneous playback in
composite, Y/C and analogue
component YUV. The card
requires a Zorro IT slot, and
includes an integrated IDE
drive controller, which gives
about 3.5Mb/second transfer
speed when used with a
Micropolis 525Mb, 1.05Gb
or 1.7Gb IDE drive.
Used with the Sunrize
Studio 16 card, the board will
also lock to SMPTE timecode.
Video capture using the
AD-3000 uses another Zorro
II slot, and makes 3-5
minutes of video possible on
a 500Mb drive depending on
image quality. The software
has a single interface for im-
porting and exporting IFF24,
Targa, Toaster Framestore
and SGI files.
You can also convert
24-bit files from its anim
format and export to any
Amiga partition, allowing
rotoscoping of realtime video
and 3D animations in ADPro,
ImageFX or Imagemaster.
The processed images can be
reimported and output to
video in real time. The
resulting files can be backed
up onto any Amiga partition.
According to TV Graphics,
tests on an '040 accelerated
Amiga 2000 with 18Mb of
RAM produced a 39Mb PAR
file from 450 IFF24 images
in 30 minutes. They say
about the same amount of
time is required to convert the
same images into a HAMS
anim using ImageFX.
The resulting file was
recorded to Betacam and was
pronounced good enough for
broadcast following examina-
tion on a vectorscope.
The capture card costs
$2031, and the playback card
$3921 (both ex tax). A
suitable IDE hard drive will
range from $1600 for 525Mb
to $2000 for 1.7Gb (ex tax).
For more information call TV
Graphics on (03) 417 3175.
□
3D
Objects
CD-
ROM
The new "Syndesis 3D-
ROM" is a CD-ROM collec-
tion of more than 500 freely
distributable 3D models, all
present in AutoCAD DXF,
3D Studio, Wavefront .obj,
Video Toaster Light Wave and
Impulse's Imagine PC/Amiga
formats. It's also got more
than 400 tileable, wrappable
texture maps. It includes a
fully indexed, cross-referenced
catalog of the objects.
The disc includes demon-
stration models from compa-
nies such as Viewpoint
Animation Engineering. 28
Viewpoint demo models are
present. More demo objects
were contributed by
Noumenon Labs, VRS Me-
dia, Mira Imaging and other
commercial modeling compa-
nies.
The 3D-ROM is a demon-
stration of the translation
abilities of Interchange, Syn-
desis 's system for converting
between 3D file formats.
For more information con-
tact:
Syndesis Corporation
P.O. Box 65
235 South Main Street
Jefferson, WI 53549
(414) 674-5200
(414) 674-6363 FAX
CompuServe 76004,1763,
support forum at 'GO AMI-
GAV
□
8
AMIGA Review
In the beginning *tie?r&* utfffeS ECS___
Then corner AGA,..
Now there i& EEtiS!
EGS-28/24 SPECTRUM
Takes your amga
beyond aga!
The EGS-28/24 SPECTRUM elevates your Amiga
2C0Q, 3000, or 4000 Alwve mid Beyond AGA and
rockets you into the world of jiowerliouae worksta-
tion resolutions and teal-
time 24-bit true-color, at a
mere fraction of the tost!
Uwk at the coiots — and fea-
tures — in out SPECTRUM:
• Programmable resolutions up to an amazing
1600x1280 - 800x600 in 24-bit!
• Real-Time 24-bit display and graphics operating
system!
• High-performance 24-bit EGS-Paint package for
professional painting and photographic editing.
• Amiga-RGB Pass -Through so the Amiga and the
EGS-28/24 SPECTltUM Can share a single monitor!
• Zorro-ir (16-bit| and Zorro-IH (32-bit'
AutoSensing for maximum performance on all
Amiga s !
• Hardware hlitter to accelerate all GUI operations,
including the Workbench driver!
■ System conforming applications can use the EGS
screenmodes directly from the Display Database!
EGS rip ires Kicfcsian 1.04 tir lilghef.
Our AMIGAs don't
iiifsmwtjtm
Scream!
X-Calibur
35Mhz040
A4000 Accelerator
X-Calibur is a piggyback
board for the A40OO/O4O board.
It has space for 12S K of RAM on board so thel
25Mhz version ean speed up A40O0 memory
access by up to 400%. Overall
increase and improve disk access 10-20%. More
with a 35Mhz version, X-Calibur uses Std
72pin SIMMs.
Compatible with Opalvision* Emplant & other
Amiga add-on devices.
In Stock Wow
- FAS ?Aih\ Spectrum Is a Iradcnurk g1 flnat Vallay ('rurjucis. Inc. EGS teffirattolSartl of Viona Ete^oprMfll
Digital
Non Linear Editing
Digital
Broadcaster 32
Total broadcast solution on a card.
[Features include ■ A/B Rolls, 'wipes, transitions & fedes * Rofcgscop-
I ing ■ Time lapse • Stop motion * NTSC/ PAL convert * 16bit Audio
I stereo parallel edit ■ 50 frames /sec * Full motion compression & de-
crm-mrra&irm - instant random access to any fifame ■ l r LLll screen rideo
-640x480 to 768x576,
I Call for a price on a complete system ready to run or just the Digital
I Broadcaster card.
3gvH 04040Mhz
^ Accelerator
040 40M11Z + SCSI 2 + RAM
G-Force 040 Accelerator from CVP is a
piggyback card for the A4 000/040 board. It
runs at 40Mhz and is ideal for anyone with
huge speed expectations.
Call for the best price now.
Hard Drives
270Mb aS" FAST SCSI II
SyQuest Reliable, light and
very Fast Call for more info,
270Mb Int+1 $1295
270Mb Ex +1 $
105Mb Ext+1 $850
Quantum SCSI-3
105Mb - LOSSg POA
2.tf*ig Seagate Baracudda
PQA
Z3SCSI-II cards $989
Monitors -NEC
Multisync or 1943 Call
WARP -the Ultimate
Amiga Transputer
Warp is a RISC T8Q5 or
T9Q0Q Transputer
aoceterator system for
Amiga, Expandable modules
mean almost urirestrfcted
expansion * gives an Amiga
200/50 (M1PS/M 1 FLOPS)
(T90O0) or 30J3.4 (T805) ■
Max 80Q0/2QQQ ■ Seamless
■ Networked » reafisrjc
prices.
Call for details
Retina Z3
The Wait ts OVER!
Zorro m 24bft display
"at least three times faster than any I have seen"
Retina is a Zcaro IE 244?itdispkLr 1 152x862 32 hit board with blitter and
Video RAM on-boanL For applications where you need to "see' the real thing in *Iivmg cobw' this
board will make the whole job faster. With a blinding refresh rate from the on-board blitter and 4Mb
of Video RAM there h literally NO WAITING with a Retina ZS. Call for a price now.
Graphics Boards,
1/ Peggy - MFEG enepder board NEW new new
V FteeOtO Ntkw wtth Video Encoder Zgro II H El 3ilnl JfTG
32GX2H)rMl280ili^r«ai^luteai(30M^«)
a'PLtnMO LI FlTO hi rin No llnntCltlji RAM
4/EGS2flr24 Spectrum ■ GVP^tafte*u?rtd*GfHptosiOS
VtV35-AGA vcrr^rjnalorlbcA4WftGebftllJUffior24blts
Video Dards - Harlequin 32-Bit Framebuffer.
» Sunrise AJJ 51G H":l bit SfjuntJ itunV.
• VLeib Ftame Grabtet* ■ Ppo. Genlocks.
Monitors^ Sony Trinitron Miiltiscaii
Phillips Brilliance HiKes
S-VHS/Betacam A/B roll
edit suite Tools
Stop Frame Controller.
NEWV2.0 $1200
Australian designed & lnanuffletuned
CPA Service Specialises in -
• Personalised Training Courses
■ Design • Digitising •
Rendering • Animation * Stop
frame animation.
TBCPIus
Con|nsilBlWV024Mt1nme
grabberftutter. Fui SMPTE encode,
hill software & ARexK interlace
QyicknBi Network
llyai nave Bra Am^ >«u nefidaNfiftvMt Snare 1b, drwes
andresoiraes. 'RtiemetaflCCiftX ■ £ijtsA500,A2V3&
A4O0O
■Mow Networtdnp for CD32
Authorised QuickNel Dealer
A1200 PCMCIA Network LirnfUOTswith ilis
simple and very wrsaffle Mtworkino system, cai for Specs.
EMPUWT S7M.DS
Mac/PC smulawr wSti Dpnonal Mac ligfi speed Serial ports,
Apple T* & &CSS. AGA colour & 24.tit. plus. Mufli-taskmit
Ph. (02) 337
Fax (02) 337 6255
Commercial Production oiAuslralii P.6 Bo«lS7, Vaucluse NSW 2030
Australia's No.1 Specialist Video Dealer.
w.wiuiiUBnnnM«MMi
PhpA
y
Radio
Scott Hillard of Computers and
Things, Port Macquarie, spotted
Ami gas on "Inspector Morse" and
the Canon BubbleJet ad, and
Amiga graphics in Club Keno and
the ABC's "Live and Sweaty".
Unfortunately, all of these have
been done before, but he also
mentioned that a local radio
station's using an A4000/030
running Final Copy II for all their
correspondence, and plans to add a
16 bit sampler and broadcast
music direct from the Amiga.
Learning Centre
Phill Dearden of Menai, NSW
spotted an article in the St George
and Sutherland Shire Leader about
a new computer learning centre at
De La Salle high school, which is
plainly shown in a photo to
include an A2000 and that clunky
old classic early 1084 monitor. He
asks us to plug his BBS; fair
enough. It's called Cerberus BBS,
and it's on 543-0572 in whatever
Menai's area code is.
Shopping Mall
Neil Bailey of Millicent, SA,
has been told that the REM
MYERS Centre in Rundle Mall,
Adelaide, are using Amigas to run
their information displays on each
level. The machines use touch
screens to let shoppers find
information about different sec-
tions of the store.
Novel
Doug Groat of Dee Why NSW
found Amigas referred to a couple
of times in the novel "The Long
Lost" by Ramsey Campbell. One
of the characters in the novel owns
a store called "Computer
Explosion" (with a name like that,
he'd better offer danged good
warranties...), and the Amiga is
mentioned - as a games machine.
Ah well.
University
fan Mitselburg of Glebe, NSW,
was perusing Macquarie Uni-
versity's guide for prospective
students, and spotted an Amiga on
page 24A in a video lab. It's a
2000 with twin 3.5 inch and one
5.25 inch drive and, wait for it,
that ancient 1084 again. We're
starting to think our Media Watch
contributors are just faking these
pictures, and have several Amigas
to choose from but only one
monitor.
Skytrackers
J. H. Roddick of Sale, Vic,
found an Amiga reference in the
Melbourne Age Green Guide of 3
March this year, in a piece on a
children's sci-fi/adventure TV
program called "Skytrackers",
Skytrackers' special effects are
mainly done on enhanced A3000s,
Deluxe Paint 3 (only 3?) and
what's described as "Director and
Animator software tools" (The
Director? Aegis Animator??).
Everywhere
Mark Beijer of Busselton, WA,
spotted some rather inconsistent
Amigas in what he describes as the
"pathetic" kid's show, "Ship To
Shore". They certainly could do a
bit better on the Amiga side; it
features kids in a school typing up
a newsletter in the Workbench 1.3
Notepad, a game using what
looked like DPaint animations and
a scene of them using Workbench
2 on a 2000.
Mark also spotted an A2000
and keyboard on the Red Dwarf
sci-fi comedy show; Red Dwarf
actually has a smorgasbord of
low-cost computer debris all over
it so it's hardly surprising an
Amiga crept in.
When watching the golf on TV,
Mark noticed the scores were done
on an Amiga, and he also spotted
an A2000 displaying a graph in the
background of a scene in The
Gods Must Be Crazy II.
Mark realised we're mean-
spirited people here at ACAR and
didn't ask for a free subscription,
just a couple of back issues.
They're on their way.
RAAF News
Sam Haddow of Katherine,
NT, noticed a prominent Amiga in
the RAAF News, where a couple
of Air Force personnel are poring
over a digitised image as part of
their training in digital image
processing at James Cook Uni-
versity. It's a twin-drive 2000 with
an old model 1084. Yes, the same
one. This is getting frightening.
Free sub, Sam? Well, you DID
paste the clipping onto your letter,
not just clip or staple it - oh, all
right.
Advertiser's
Index
Computa Magic
81
MIDS
11
ACAR sub form
CompRepair
45
MVB
IBC,96
ACAR index
CPA
9
Pel ham
87
Amadeus Computers 48,49
Desktop Utilities
81
Peripheral World
9,41,72
Amiga PD Centre
n
Disk-O-Tech
68
Prime Artifax
82,83
Amitech
29
Digi Pix
68
Rod Irving Electronics 11
Brideson
u
Electronic Design
5
Scarlett PD
11
Brunswick
n
Fonhof
81
Sigmacom
1FC,1,2
Computer Affair
68,81
Fat Agnus PD
11
Solutions Rendered
12
Computer Man
OBC
Logico
6
United) Electronics
44
Code One
19
Mallee
16
Wall Street Video
37
Compuparts
19
Megadise
44
Webb Electronics
11
10
AMIGA Review
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F-BASIC 5.0
THE FASTEST BASIC COMPILER
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This is a learning tool for
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Teachers, Tbtors etc.
Distr: J. SOOS
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P.O. Box 1570: Wangara W.A.
Australia 6065
■ Cheque or money order
Scarlet
Amiga PD Software
PO Box 458
Doveton Vic 31 77
(03)793 3814
Phone for
Catalogue Disk
Open 9am - 1 0pm
AMIGA Review
11
Do you want something to show on
your New CDROM?
We have heaps of high quality CDs titles from $45
CD-Rom Titles
Amine* C'T>-Rmii $49M
1000s of progs/source code, sounds, denws, .games.
Asim CDFS V2.0 NEW Version $U$M
Clip Art Warehouse NEW 360.00
11,000 bit mapped -ulips in PC formats. Yon"! need
ADPro or storiiar to convert ttacse-PCX, XFF etc
Corel Professional Photos NEW $79.00 es
100 \rohuues of Kodak Photo-CDs each containing 100
of the kosttpaaliiy images yaul] Hud anywhere. Perfect
for presentations, DTP (3C All images are 24 bit and
convert to HAM-& nkeEy- Alt royalty fte^a
Fred Fish CuILcction on CD Rflni $a5.0O
Vo3on*e 1 .6 now available - Contain* ifil&M 1-800.
GIFs Galore CD'Rom $45.00
?000 pictures in the popular GIF format.
GJF viewer included cm the CE>-Ram.
Images with impact! NEWSS49.0O
1000 EPS clips oft CD-Rom for us& wiriv Final Writer
efe. More tfean 5D0 arc in eofcrar. Pfofesstonally drawn.
ExceUem quality. Highly recomnwndHl. NOTE Use
Art Exjwessiofi o* Pro Draw to ungroup some of these
images, deffinil3y worth Hie- trouble.
I7te CDs below are PC version CD ROMS,
You 'I! tiaed Viewfek, ADPro or similar to
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Distant Suns for Windows $149,00
Ov« 1500 foil screen images of planets, cornets etc.
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Over 200Mb of pktura of Man?! Contains die entire
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Final Writer/Copy
Font Special
Soft Faces
25 Fonts per
volume, suitable
for Final Copy
&. Final Writer.
* 79 ~
.V-'/ii
^
Put a CD-Rom drive on your Amiga row-
an units are quality NEC Mechanisms Photo CD Compatible
NEC DDR-25 External Single Speed $299
NEC CDR-84 Internal Double Speed $699
NEC CDR-74 External Double Speed $849
NEC C-DR- 600 Triple Speed 450K/sec $995
ASIM CD driver with easy phoio-CD handling $1 19
Xetec CD Rom driver kit HEW Version $99
AO PfO 2.5 5275
ASOG Pro Control J1 19
ftSDG Pro Conversion
Pack $69
MulfframeADProSUS
Pro Page A $149
Latest version - now
includes AGA chipset
support. variable
zoom, and mere* mere
Pro Gate S229
THE spreadsheet pack-
age. Fully AGA corn-
pat. Multiple fonts on
$a een. Many features
Blitz Baste £ $m
Yep, this Is the BASIC
package lading the
programming wold by
storm. Inc compiler,
Brill Lance 5273
The fastest AGA. paint
program around, Many
advanced graphic
tools.
Antm Workshops Si 55
The ultimate animation
: ?i? Eftlllty. Gut/paste,
change res, add sound
etc. Now AGA compaL
.S^i CygnusEdPra S125
rTHE text editor. Super
: last scroll, search and
replace. Multiple views
etc. It's got the lot!
Clnemorpri $99
The popular morphingj
and warping progjaro
from GVP. Generate
animations.
F«
Directory Opus £109
THE directory utility.
Simple point & click In-
terlace Tor copy, delete
etc. Customizable.
ii^^^C
SAS- c Development
System V6.3 5249
Upgrade VS.3 to V6.5
(inc C++) SIM
SASCV6.5 $3&9
Font Packs $199
16 Type 1 Postscript
fonts. Use in Pro
Page, Pagestream. Ft
nal Copy II, Final
Writer, Pro Draw etc
SotlFacBS 595
Meed more fonts for
Final Writer/Final
Copy IJ? Each pack
has 25 new fonts,
5CAU MM3H S549
Create multi -media
presentations sync
graphics, lext. anims
with audio & video.
Montage 24 $499
24-rjit titling. Image
camp, and etleols for
AGA, OpalVision and
IV-24.
Morphus $1fl9
Add-on product for
Imagine- Mnrp-h, iwist,
bend, sheer, ripple el-
most any object.
PatchMelster $119
MID! librarian with full
editing options. Store
banks & libraries, Inte-
grates witli B&P.
PC Task 549
IBM emulator with
VGA support. Turn
your Amiga into a PC.
Image FX 5449
SvP image manipula-
tion and control.
Powarful features.
Easy to use.
ahwot
GrassDDs5.D S6d
Rud/wrlle PC format
disks. Includes
CrossPG IBM emuta-
tor
Final Copy II 5139
Powerful word pro-
. cessing far AMIGA
Excellent printing £
graphic handling.
Final Writer S219
Even more features
than Final Copy If,
120 fonts ana" 100
Clips included.
Anil Back Tunis .
$55 Hard disk
users should not be
without these tuning
and recovery tools.
Am f back $55
THE backup package
far your valuable
daia. Supports tape,
hi-dartsity floppies,
Syvll!:::^ lifc
Bars and Pipes $449
The centre of your
Miui music system
on the Amiga. Too
many leatures to list
B& I- atMuns iron 5$)
Yes, we stock the
complete and varied
range of add-on foals
for Bars SPipes.
Hypercafhe S54
Speed up your disk
access up to 22flQ%-
Easyinstallalign.
FREE Catalogue lists
hundreds of other titles
currently available,
Get into
Arexx
specials!
Arexx Compiler $160 and
Arexx CookBook $60
orOrcib
A! 200 FPUs
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BEST Prices.
Specials stop
KB 1202
AI200RAM/Co-pip $OOH
Disk EXPANDS
Double your Disk Space $TQ
HiDensHy Floppy
Drives Ext^280 ML $265
Special pricing
on photo-realistic printers.
Primera Dye Sublimation
colour printer SBEST
Piimera Thermal Transfer
colour printer $BEST
GltKsy colour printing at an
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dye sublimation "photo-realistic"
printing. Printing density of 2*B dpi.
Includes Workbench Preferences
driver.
I Dye Sublimation Upgrade tat
NEW $BEST
I Upgrade- Primera thermal transfer to
I full phoLo realistic! dye sub printing.
Tune-up Service.
Solutions Rendered offer al
special Amiga "Tune-up
Service". We will optimise
your entire system. By
| configuring your Amigas
setup more effectively we I
will ensure you are getting |
| the most out of your Amiga.
We also Install and I
configure new software &
Amiga hardware, graphic & j
processor cards & memory
add-ons.
Hoqpy Music - the Kids Music program • Soon.
We stock Vidi digitizers, scanners, mice etc
at very competitive pricing.
Order Form: Product Name,
Price
Total
V «#S
Hoopy Faint $60-00
The KID'S painting program.
Lots of ouilt in pictures, brushes
and clip art. Heaps of special ijjJ^mA *•"
drawing effects. Built-in ganes Lu
play. Kids (and parents] can
quickly and easily create their
work of art. Child friendly print,
load and save.
HoopvWrile HfWSBO.DO
The KID'S Word Processor from j
the author of Hoopy Paint. Finally j
kids can write tetters and school
reports with this easy lo use bul j
lun procjram. Lots of sound »f-
lects. Built-in games lik« Hang- :
man Child friendly print, load |
and save.
[ You will find all the AMIGA peripherals, software and
| add-ons you require when you call Solutions Rendered,
Your One Stop Solution,
jolutions Tel: (02) 838 0733 1
naerea f 3x: (02> 838 9376
46 Shannon St. LalotParK NSW 2147.
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Please bill my |_| VISA Q MasletCard Q Bankcard Exp date;
il to:
Who; 'Pb BOX Mb'
"ImpELi igle 1
■RT
Proem
dworili JJJ
First Impressions
Choose a font
Choose a font
nl Porograph Bra
Bs!fivj« a
■110 rt |
UneKtfcM; H|* i ra
1 Af ^ 4 jd' * 3 ' 1 Lir*J$teC*"i£ *-\ 5^9*
™__
J
Lgf1:
HOB era
J taaep una* Teqsriher
Gfjtl HS
Odd nil
* J 4S^ I <fe?pSl |
**A host of powerful
new features."
By Andrew Farrell
S\ 'rriiiv. uh: *evirr; Jmn top 7A& cr. CcKJsrnl Poos'
«« '■"'*' Li^. | . . . r __„
I Early players in the Amiga
wordprocessing business have all
but disappeared. Excellence has
fizzled out, Pro Write struggles on
in the background, Pen Pal is still
in the odd store and others like
Scribble have simply been
outdated and outgrown. The two
big names are from relative
newcomers.
Final Copy, and the more
recent Final Writer have gained a
solid reputation as a reliable, if
somewhat quirky package. Word-
worth seemed to offer more, but
the trade off was its cumbersome
interface. The two have battled it
out over the past few years.
Software Failure
JJO
Program failed (error #80000506).
Wart for disk, activity to finish.
Suspend
Reboot
A new version is coming.
Version 3.0 of Wordworth was
released prematurely in Britain a
month or so ago. With Final Writer
out, the people at Digita made a
dash to ensure market share was
not lost. The result was the version
we got our hands on to review.
Sadly, a new release was due to
arrive days after going to press,
and Digita promise it fixes all the
bugs we ran into. So, for the
moment, we'll put the problems to
one side, and let you in on what's
new in the world of wordpro-
cessing using Wordworth.
There are some really great
features in this latest version, and
providing Digita's maintenance
release lives up to their promises,
Wordworth may be just a step in
front of Final Writer. At long last
we're starting to see some of the
functions found on industry heavy
weights such as Microsoft's Word
6.0 on program costing half the
price on our beloved Amiga.
What's New
For starters, the whole
interface is different. Version 3.0 is
a rewrite, a whole new program - a
lot like the fabled Pagestream 3.0,
the arrival of which may still be
another month or so off. The
menus, gadgets, sliders and
windows now conform to Amiga
Style Guidelines - for the most
part. This is very important as
operating system versions continue
to march forward and the Amiga's
architecture moves ahead toward
AAA. Compatibility can only be
ensured if developers follow the
rules. What's more, it makes using
Amiga software easier, as every
application will follow a familiar
interface. Good move Digita.
The tool bar is can now be
remodelled to suit your tastes. You
can choose what tool icons you
would like to appear, and whether
the bar is vertical or horizontal. In
fact, the more I dug, the more I
AMIGA Review
13
Word
Bl-
Here's an example of drag Jgjdrop.
and
"1
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V
-
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From lafl J£J6 Cfil Fr— rnp. 3SQ c^ Coluttrs
94* i.jai&l ;..Ettraj 1 1 1 HiMi
■M^^^HUm^|WB
Highlight, drag and drop ■
leaving your mouse
found Wordworth was so much
more configurable than the
previous version.
Drag and Drop Editing
it's often the little things that
really impress. Cut and paste is
one of the more commonly
executed functions of a word-
processor, so any improvement in
this area are very welcome. The
cut and paste buttons on the tool
bar are easy to get to - having
them at the side of the document is
the most convenient location.
However, what is better is the new
drag and drop editing.
Here's how it works. You
highlight a piece of text and then
move the mouse until it turns into
a pointer just beyond the edge of
the highlighted region. Now click
and drag - the pointer grows a
shaded box on its tail. Release the
mouse button wherever you would
like to paste the text. The text is
instantly moved - or if you hold
down CTRL, it is copied. This
simple feature is a marvellous way
of editing text.
cut and paste without
On-Line Help
Wordworth's help system has
been seriously improved. It now
takes advantage of the Amiga-
guide file format. There's an
extensive index, How do I? section
and plenty of cross-references. I
found a lot of the best features by
flipping around the help system
rather than reading the manual.
The documentation is quite
good, but I can never get too
excited about perfect bound books.
They don't sit flat and eventually
they tend to fall apart.
There's a very handy summary
of all the menu tool icons on the
back cover, the index is good,
there's some handy tutorials and
the appendix covers a few tricky
areas like Postscript printing in
more detail.
What is lacking are some
impressive example documents on
the distribution disk. The two
included are rather dull, giving no
indication of the power of
Wordworth.
Another concern is that the
updates taking place now will
probably only be documented in
the help system.
Automation
One of the strongest trends in
modern wordprocessors is the
increasing numbering of time
saving functions. Although we'll
have to wait a bit for auto-
formatting, right now Wordworth
3.0 offers document templates, and
Auto Correct. The first is simply a
collection of ready made pages,
just waiting for you to fill in the
details. You can make your own
templates, but it's a shame that the
old Pen Pal option of documents
which work like forms is missing.
The other time saving is Auto
Correct. As you type, Auto Correct
will watch for certain word and
immediately replace it. It's faster
than spell checking as you type,
and you can also use Auto Correct
to create short cut words. For
example, if I always type teh
instead of the, Auto Correct will
fix it. However, it could also turn
af into Andrew Farrell.
This feature has the potential to
be developed much more to
include such things as smart
quotes, looking for double capital-
isation or making sure sentences
start with a capital. As it is, the
current version will already cap-
italise day and month name if your
require.
Tables and Calculations
Although Wordworth supports
four kinds of TABs - centered, left,
right and decimal, creating tables
is still a hassle unless you use the
Table option. A single click on the
table icon and you can size a table
into view and fill out the details. If
you need to total, average, or find
the minimum or maximum of a
row or column, the calculate
option will work it out for you.
I found the table facility really
handy, but it stops a bit short of
14
AMIGA Review
Word
Final Writer - Release II
Final Writer has been
improved - the new Release 2
makes it posssible to select bold,
italic or indeed underline in a
civilised fashion from the tool
bar. What's more, there is now a
Font/Style strip - a floating bar
containing access to the features
often used in altering the look of
text. It contains control over the
paragraph style, font, point size,
text position, case, and - ready for
this - style,
The edit menu now features
an Undo or Redo option. There's
also a floating palette, floating
view menu and floating layout
menu. To float a menu means it is
not attached to the screen - it can
be placed anywhere. At times this
can be a curse as you struggle to
organise all the tool bars you have
open. However, when you're
trying to do something tricky, it's
quite handy to have all the control
right at your mouse pointer tip.
I haven't had time to carry out
exhaustive timing tests, but Final
Writer 2 certainly seemed faster
than the earlier version. Other
improvements include better
control over the document view,
with the option of revealing or
hiding the tool bar, page guides,
tab guides, user button strip and
so on. The layout menu now
allows you to easily adjust
paragraph alignment, line
spacing, and indentation.
Overall, there are many
impressive, albeit small imrove-
ments, in Final Writer release 2.
The authors have redeemed it
successfully from the pits of
frustration it previously haunted.
Word worth 3.0 sounds dramat-
ically improved over its previous
version. 1 will report on that one
as soon as a copy arrives to test.
For more information on
Final Writer release 2 contact
the Australian distributor,
Tupsofi, on (02) 477 5353.
J Q
being a breeze to use. It's
impossible to resize the entire
table, and adding columns and
rows is fiddly. The calculate
function has to be executed every
time you make a change - it
doesn't work like a formula tn a
spreadsheet. Nevertheless, tables
are a welcome addition.
File Formats
Behind the scenes, Wordworth
is now very modularised. The
business of importing and ex-
porting files is all handled using
filter files, much like Professional
Page. The theory goes that you can
easily bring out new filter files to
increase the number of formats
supported by your software.
In the graphics department,
Wordworth seems big on IBM file
formats, but a bit light on when it
comes to the Amiga. You can
import BMP, GIF, IMG, PCX and
TIFF files, as well as IFFs. Fine.
However, when it comes to
structured clip art, you're limited
to CGM or GEM - both IBM
formats! Whatever happened to
good old EPS - or the popular
ProDraw format. It looks like
Digita are doing little more than
trying to corner the market for clip
art add on disks.
In the document area, Word-
worth will import ASCII, Micro-
soft Word or Works, Rich Text
Format, Wordperfect 5.1 or
Wordstar. Fine - but what about a
few Amiga formats please? Sorry -
it's ASCII or nothing. Digita must
have decided to penalise anyone
who decides to upgrade to
Wordworth. Watch out, you may
have to convert all yom old
document to ASCII and lose a lot
of your formatting. As it is, most
of the import modules strip away a
lot of the fancy stuff.
Drawing tools
Wordworth has finally bowed
to the pressure of many users to
include some drawing tools.
However, they've still left out the
most important things in my books
- a snap to grid option. Trying to
line up a dozen lines when you're
creating a form is a pain without a
You can almost do without the manual thanks to
excellent online help.
AMIGA Review
15
grid to work to.
At least the basic shapes are all
there - lines, squares, circles,
ellipses, even text boxes. All can
have various line thickness, styles
and colour. Solid shapes may be
filled or transparent and there's
reasonable control over which
object is in front or behind.
Text Effects
If it wasn 't so slow, this feature
would be a real winner. As it is,
text effects are but an interesting
toy - useful about once a year
when you do something wacky.
Your kids will love it. Basically
you can take a perfectly readable
piece of text and make it illegible
by twisting it, curling it, adding
'■
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multiple shad- ows, rotating it - the
works. Very clever, slow, and a
little on the clumsy side. You
adjust the gadgets, wait to see the
outcome, then adjust some more.
A more WYSIWYG way of
working with this would be really
handy. Digita should take a look at
the way Word 6.0 handles this
feature.
Wrap Up
Well, we've just scratched the
surface. Of course, Wordworth is a
solid program - all we've looked at
here are the weird and wonderful
new things they've added. Next
month, when we get our hands on
the B release which is hopefully a
lot more stable, and may even
have some new things, we'll do a
complete run down, including a
performance comparison between
Wordworth and Final Writer. Stay
tuned.
Thanks to Amadeus Computers
for supplying our evaluation copy.
Expect the new versions available
by now.
For more information call
Amadeus on (02) 652 2712.
□
Audio Gallery Languages - $95.00
Don't miss the boat on L.O.T.E. (Language Other Than English).
* Audio Gallery: an excellent language tutorial system.
* 6 -8 disks of digitised speech of true native speakers.
* Online dictionary and test options. Grammar manual.
4 Words associated ■with graphics in the Duden method.
* Easy HD installation procedure. * Amiga or PC format.
* Available now in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, French,
German, Italian, Spanish & E.S.L. Coming soon: Indonesian.
* Call or write for a free demonstration disk of any language.
# Schools: ask about our special 5 & 10 Lab Packs.
ClipArt - Over 80 disks available
New Encapsulated Postscript format
(Tiger is an example) - IS disks in the
series - $3.00 per disk, or all 18 disks for
$50.00. Other formats available: IFF,
HAM, BSW & Colour - see the Hyperlog
for a comprehensive list.
Bankcard, Mastercard & Visa
welcome!
MALLEE SOFTWARE
5th Rd, Underbool, Vic. 3509, Tel: (050) 946 358
* Guaranteed disks. *Fast delivery. *$3.00 per disk.
*11 disks for the price of 10, *23 disks for the price of 20.
*Exchange incompatible disks. *Friendly service.
Thousands of disks to choose from: Utilities, Games,
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Demos, Music, Graphics, Sound Effects & heaps more.
FREE SOFTWARE: Send along a blank
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It's 'Superb', 'Fantastic' & 'Easy-To-
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Hyperlog. Our customers love our
disk catalogue! Call or write for your
free copy today.
16
AMIGA Review
Understanding
databases
"What they are and how you can use them. "
By Andrew Farrell
► Database programs were once as
important as a wordpiocessor, or
spreadsheet. However, these days
what was once a general purpose
application configured individual-
ly for the needs of a user, has
become specialised shrink-wrapped
software. Contact management
programs, like Keep Track from
Tupsoft are a good example.
Essentially, Keep Track allows
you to maintain a database of
contacts. Everything is set up just
right for that one application. An
accounts package is a more
complex series of databases,
interlinked and related in many
ways to keep track of business
transactions.
However, there are still times
when an off-the-shelf package
4{\] Bill R 1,e V
Address
won't quite do what you want.
So, designing your own
database using a program like
Superbase Personal, or a more
powerful package like Superbase
Professional, might be required.
Understanding how a database is
organised is useful not only for
creating your own applications,
but also in mamtaining and
working with specialised programs
that use database files.
What is a database?
The term database is a little
confusing, because it can refer
both to a program and the files that
the program allows you to
maintain. A database program is
the engine that looks after a
database file. Many database
programs also allow you to
program anything from a
simple formula to complex
applications with hundreds of
lines of code using a built in
database language.
For now, let's take a look at
the file. A database file is quite
different from most other types
of files on your Amiga.
Internally, it is organised in a
very specific way - defined by
you. It may also be able to take
advantage of other files to help
it work better, such as an index
file.
The idea of a database is
similar to the old card file box
used for keeping names and
address, along with other details.
You still see them in use in, say, a
small doctor's surgery. If you're
using a card file, chances are you
could get better value out of it by
putting the information into a
database.
Like the card file, a database
file is organised into many records.
Each record contains an entry for
one of the items being filed - it
could be people's details, an
inventory of stock, or a catalogue
of records. The records are in turn
divided into fields, which are
places where individual pieces of
information are stored for each
record.
For example, a database of
clients may contain several
hundred records. Each record
would include fields to put
information such as the name,
address, telephone number, last
date of contact and so on.
The individual fields can be set
up to only accept certain types of
data, such as a number, date, yes
or no, or just text.
A field could even be the result
of a formula, just as a cell in a
spreadsheet can result from a
calculation.
AMIGA Review
17
J &sp'"TS^ *rSfia-S5by fcia?¥ Fsrfc
Flexer is good example of a
public domain database.
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Jt"s easy to filter out records
you don H want to see.
The advantage
Where a database gets
interesting is the many ways what
you put in can be got back out. For
example, we have a database of
subscribers to Australian Amiga
Review. Each month, the database
is updated with changes of address
and new subscribers are added.
When the magazine is ready to be
shipped, address labels are
generated by asking the database
to output all the people on file who
are due an issue. Of course, some
subscribers have lapsed and these
are excluded. The list is generated
in postcode order, and the number
of issues due to each subscriber is
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prjends
automatically adjusted. All of this
is done with a single command.
We don't have to waste time
sorting the labels, sifting through
to see which subscriptions have
expired or which ones are due an
issue. The database program does
all this work for us. At any time
we can see immediately how many
of the people on file who have
ever subscribed are currently
subscribers.
Doing all of this using a
manual system would be very
cumbersome. Just finding
someone's card fite can be
impossible if you're missing the
name, or it's been filed incorrectly.
A database program can find
records a number of ways, so it's
virtually impossible to lose a
record. How does this work?
, The power of indexes
One way is through the
use of indexes. An index
is a separate file
created by the
database program
based on one or more
fields in the main
database file. For
example a catalogue of
video titles would
probably be indexed
by the field
containging the name of the
movie. So, the database program
would create a separate file which
only contains the names of the
movies, and a pointer to say which
record in the main database file
contains the complete record for
that movie.
The main indexed field is
sometimes called the key field.
The order in which your database
appears when you're editing and
adding records is normally
determined by the currently
selected index.
The index is kept in sorted
order, and because it's much
smaller than the main database, is
a lot faster to search through to
find a particular movie name.
Once the name is found, the
database can display the
appropriate record, which contains
the full entry.
The main database file does
not have to stay in any sort of
order. As new records are added
they are appended to the end of the
database file. However, the index
file is resorted whenever a new
record is added. Keeping a small
index file sorted is much quicker
than trying to keep the entire
database sorted.
You can have many indexes for
a database, and an index can
consist of more than one field. For
example a database of clients
18
AMIGA Review
John Smith
14 The Best Way
North Rycle NSW
might
have an index that includes the
first six letters of the surname,
then the street number and name.
In a database likely to have similar
entries, this helps to make each
index entry unique.
Indexes make the whole
business of viewing your database
in a particular order, and of finding
records, much faster. You can
recreate the index at any time if it
gets damaged, although the bigger
the database the longer it takes.
Working with more than
one database
Say you have a database of
clients. You might also a database
of products. Now you decide to
create a new database to contain
the transactions your clients make,
purchasing your products.
You could have one big
database, with each record
containing the client details,
products ordered and details about
the products, but this would be
inefficient.
For starters, one client might
make many orders, and you would
be stuck having to re-enter their
address details many times.
Likewise, one product might be
ordered by many different people.
You don't want to have to keep
entering the unit cost, or
description.
The solution is to use three
separate databases, but to relate the
client and product database to the
transaction database. Here's where
things start to get a bit complex,
but you'li get the basic idea.
Instead of recording all the
client details with each
transaction, all you really need to
know is which record in the
client database the information is
in. The easiest way to make this
' link is to have one of the fields in
the database equal one of the
fields in the customer file.
The common field might by
the customer number, or name.
Once you've created the
relationship, as you enter
transactions your database
program can check to see if you've
entered a valid customer number
or name, and display the details.
However, the actual record in the
transaction database will only
contain one field linking it to all
the customer information. The rest
of the field can detail the
transaction itself - quantity
ordered, payment details, and so
on.
A similar relationship would be
created with the product database.
A product code or name field in
the transaction database would be
linked to the same filed in the
product database.
This ability is very important if
you're likely to want to link
databases. To do this, you need to
use a relational database.
Creating these relationships is
quite simply using modern
database software. Superbase now
allows links to be defined using a
menu system. The ways things are
organised is displayed graphically,
making the structure much easier
to understand.
Next month we'll take a closer
look at setting up a simple
database of our own, using a
couple of different programs.
□
CompuParts
& Services
1 Kokoda Ave,
Wahroonga NSW 2076
Fax/Phone (02) 489 2133
S pecials
A570 CD ROM $95
A2000 base machine new $320
A2000/50Mb HD new $550
386SX25 Emulator A2386 $300
Commodore 2300 genlock $75
Hardware
A2O00/A50O floppy new $100 used $50
Commodore mouse new $20 used $10
A2065 network card $100
A2000 keyboard new $80
A500 keypad $50
A2000 bare motherboard $100
A500 bare motherboard $50
A2000 power supply $80
A500 power supply $50
A500 512K mem exp $50
A600 1Mb mem exp $50
A2058/8 8Mb mem exp $400
PCMCIA 4Mb $270
A2091 SCSI controller $130
1Mb x 1 DRAM $50
4256 x 4 DRAM $50
WB 2.04 ROM chip $50
8520 CIA chip $20
8372A 1Mb Agnus $60
8375 2Mb Agnus $60
8373 ECS Denise $50
Paula chip $40
Gary, Buster $20 ea
SCSI internal cable from $10
SCSI external cable $20
23/15 VGA adaptor $30
Printer cable $7
Modem cable $10
Hard Drives
127Mb 2.5" IDE $400
250Mb 3.5" IDE $380
other sizes and SCSI drives also available
AMIGA Review
19
DiskExpander
By Gavin Watt
I As an owner of an Al 200 with a
40Mb hard drive, it didn't take me
long to cram the drive with
software.
Initially I compressed the main
programs using Powerpacker. This
saved me some space, but only for
the programs. Some programs
wouldn't compress at all.
The obvious thing to do is buy
a second or larger drive, but I also
wanted to buy more RAM. The
cost of both would have been
prohibitive. A compromise was
needed.
File compression has been used
in the Amiga environment for a
number of years. Archiving
programs such as LHA and ZOO
can save space, but it's time
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consuming to de-archive before
using the data. There have been
automatic tile compressors in the
public domain for some time, but
Disk Expander is the first commer-
cial package.
How does it work?
Disk Expander works by auto-
matically compressing and decom-
pressing data and programs on a
specified device. Once set up it
runs in the background, and you
only notice a slight decrease in the
speed of reading and writing files.
Disk Expander can be used on
all Amigas and with all Work-
bench versions. A minimum of
1Mb RAM is recommended.
It is important to read the
manual carefully. As I was
paranoid that I would stuff up my
hard drive, I pored over it. Since
it's been translated from the
original German, some of the text
may need to be read a few times,
especially by novice users. If you
follow the steps in the manual,
though, things should work out.
As Disk Expander reads and
writes back to your hard disk, it is
20
AMIGA Review
wise to make a backup of the
device. I installed the program
successfully first off, but Murphy's
Law could have struck at any time.
The package consists of three
programs. Disk Expander reads
and writes the compressed file,.
Device Packer compresses the
files already on a device and
DEStatistics gives information on
what has happened to the files on
the device.
The packing algorithms that
are the heart of Disk Expander
come in the XPK standard library
format and can be updated in the
future. Disk Expander comes with
three such libraries, BLZW, FAST
and NUKE, as well as two
specially written libraries. NUKE
would seem the best all round
library and is used as the default
setting.
Installation
To install on a hard drive,
simply boot from your normal
system drive and use the InstallHD
program supplied on the disk.
After you type in yom name and
address for copy protection, Disk
Expander will be installed in the
required directories.
Disk Expander can be set up in
the WBStartup drawer using the
tool types explained in the manual.
It can also directly modify your
startup sequence, and gives a few
options as to the position it takes.
If space is at a premium, then
the boot partition can also be
compressed. Be careful not to
compress all the files though. The
startup-sequence and system
configuration files, as well as Disk
Expander and its libraries, should
remain uncompressed.
The default settings within
Disk Expander will ignore these
files. If you do compress all the
files, you can use Device Packer to
decompress them.
[Special care should be taken
by users of old model A3 000s with
kickfiles on the hard drive. If you
compress the kickfile, your
machine won't even be able to
boot from floppy and will sit there
pathetically asking for a Kickstart
disk. You Have Been Warned -
DR]
The main window allows you
to alter the device settings and
compressors. Each device can
have individual settings to suit
your needs. For example, a read
only partition can use a compres-
sor with a faster decompression
speed but a slower compression
speed.
Clicking on the device button
will allow you to see the configu-
rations for each device at a glance.
It is recommended that the Exam
and ExNext settings be used, as
some software can have trouble
without these settings on.
Disk Expander can be removed
from any device with the click of a
button. This is particularly handy
if you have installed it to DFO: and
want to write to a normal disk. It is
also possible to unpack a device
by removing the automatic
packing option and then running
Disk Packer.
Overall the system works well.
A little more time is taken to open
and save files, but the benefits
outweigh this. It does take some
memory and if things are tight, it
may be worth getting more RAM.
This will allow you to run a larger
cache for Disk Expander to work
in, speeding up the process.
Disk Expander will also work
on floppy disks, which can be a
viable alternative to the overpriced
high density disk drives. Again,
some parts of a self-booting disk
should remain uncompressed to
allow it to boot up and read the
startup sequence before imple-
menting Disk Expander.
Reliability
I've been running Disk
Expander now for oveT a month
and have had no problems with it.
I scored a 32% increase in my
Work partition space. This may not
seem much, but the drive contains
mainly my program files, which
don't compress as effectively as
data files. Up to 70% in space
saving can be gained on some
files. I would expect a saving on
average between 40% and 50%.
One interesting occurrence will
AMIGA Review
21
SPECIAL STOP PRESS
AMIGA UPDATE
COMMODORE UPDATE: This information is current as of June 30th, 1994. A number of .
bids (possibly as many as eight) have been finalised to buy the Amiga technology, The exact
details of the bidders, and state of each bid, is difficult to ascertain as the situation is subject
to non-disclosure agreements. However, an announcement from the liquidators will be made
soon after July 15, at which time it will be decided which offer has been accepted.
OUR ASSESMENT: All of the offers we are aware of are very positive. Several of the
bidders have indicated they intend to continue with the current Amiga technology, as well as
making production of AAA machines a priority. We remain very confident that things will be
sorted out very quickly. Although there is a lot more information available, much of it is
difficult to confirm, and therefore best left unsaid. It appears Samsung continue to have an
interest, as well as a consortium of U.S. based companies.
WHERE TO BUY AMIGASr Several companies have been successful in obtaining Amigas
from overseas. At the time of writing CPA on (02) 337 6255 were expecting a large delivery
of Amiga 1200s and Amiga 4000 '030s (full version). Sigmacom (02) 524 9846 are also
expecting machines. These should be available by the time you read this.
MORE INTO: After July 15, call (02) 879 7455 during business hours for an update.
happen if you optimise your boot
partition to cut down on file
fragmentation. On the first reboot,
you will be asked to insert your
original Disk Expander disk into
DF0.
This is part of the copy
protection and only needs to be
done immediately after the first
reboot. So make a backup copy of
Disk Expander as instructed and
ensure you always have it
available after optimising.
This is a tedious process if you
only have one floppy drive, as
constant disk swapping is needed.
There should have been a better
way.
For many years, IBM compati-
ble and Macintosh users have en-
joyed the benefits of easy to use
compression software. Now there
is something for the Amiga owners
to consider.
Disk Expander is available
through Amadeus Computers on
(02) 652 2712 for $89.
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22
AMIGA Review
Understanding
Compression
By Daniel Flutter
► Compression comes in many
forms. There are programs like
Disk Expander, designed to
increase your apparent disk space
by automatically compressing and
decompressing everything.
The earlier incarnations of
these programs, packages like
PowerPacker and Imploder, com-
press individual files and add a bit
to the front that makes them
automatically decompress so you
can run them like ordinary
programs. And archiving programs
are intended to reduce the size of
whole clumps of programs by
compressing them into single files;
this makes it possible to transfer
them much more conveniently by
modem.
But all of these compression
varieties use the same basic
technique to perform the seem-
ingly magical feat of making data
smaller. Here's a simplified
explanation of how they work.
First, we need some data to
compress. For this example, let's
use the nonsense phrase "bikes
reek spikes reed tree reef likes free
breeze". This string of words takes
up 50 characters, counting the
spaces, but as you can see has a
couple of similar elements - the
"ikes " and "ree" parts are
repeated.
Let's say we replace "ikes"
(and the space that follows it) with
"%" and the "ree" with "*". The
result is "b%*k sp%*d t* *f l%f*
b*ze", which is only 26 characters,
a considerable improvement.
It's not quite that easy, though.
How is an uncompressor supposed
to know what's compressed and
what isn't, and what each
compressed character represents?
There has to be what's called a
look-up tabic for the compressed
data, which in this case would say
something like:
"%='ikes '*='ree'"
and there would also have to be
an identifying character before
each compressed chunk so the
uncompressor knows to look in the
table for what it means. If we say ft
is this marker, then the final file
would look something like:
"%'ikes'*'ree'b A % A *k-
sp*%**d t A * A *f r%F* b A *ze"
which is 49 characters total. A
miniscule improvement - under
5% - but an improvement
nonetheless.
Why does this simple example
get such lousy compression?
Basically because it's very small,
which means the decoding
information is large in comparison
to the total file size. This reflects
the way the real world behaves -
very small files generally don't
compress very well. The example
also doesn't use the niftier
mathematical tricks employed by
real compression software, which
you are quite free to learn all about
if you've got an inquiring,
algoritomically oriented mind,
several weeks to kill and no social
life.
Typically, good compression
shrinks plain text by about 50%,
programs by 20-60%, IFF pictures
by around 10-20%, and some files,
like GIF and JPEG pictures which
are already compressed formats,
by approximately nothing.
It depends on how "dense" the
incoming data already is; a file
composed entirely of the same
character will compress to virtual-
ly nothing but a collection of very
different data won't be nearly as
easy to reduce.
Further advances are being
made all the time in compression.
There's big money involved in
being able to send data from one
place to another with the minimum
investment in resources. This,
though, is the core of it.
Public domain and shareware
Amiga compressors you might like
to check out include PowerPacker
and Imploder for compressing
individual programs, LhA for
archiving, DMS for compressing
entire disks and UnZIP and UnARJ
for extracting IBM archives.
□
AMIGA Review
23
Migraph
MS1200
**The economical way to get
graphics into your Amiga."
By Dennis Nicholson
I The Amiga is supported by a
plethora of image enhancement
devices. Such video boards as the
EGS 28/24 Spectrum, Opalvision,
Retina, V/Lab, Picasso, Piccolo,
Harlequin, and the Vision a all
allow you to display high quality
images. But their output is only as
good as the original input.
Image input devices for the
Amiga have been available
virtually since the machine came
on the market. The first, and by far
the most popular, was DigiView
by NewTek. Being able to digitize
images with a video camera was
one of the Amiga's strong points,
but it became obvious that the
pictures were only as good as the
original input device, in this case
the camera.
Most users chose the cheapest
available combination - black and
white security camera and red,
green and blue plastic filters. At
the time we thought digitized
images were absolute magic, even
if they were a little blurry at the
edges. Who cared that it took over
three minutes to complete a scan
in high resolution mode?
Several years later, we have the
option of using numerous video
input devices. There are frame
grabbers such as the Vidi range
from Rombo, and certain video
boards also have frame grab
functions. The disadvantage with
these systems is that you still need
a video camera. The better (read
more expensive) the camera, the
better the result.
In these days of "high quality
imaging" you can consider Super
VHS or Hi-8 to be at the bottom of
the quality spectrum. A good
SVHS camera will set you back a
minimum of $2,000, and then only
supply the equivalent of a 400/450
line resolution screen, which is
JUST acceptable for low-end
video work, but hopelessly under
the quality required for desktop
publishing. Add another $400 to
$800 for the frame grabber, then
don't forget the lighting and a
tripod, and you'll find there's very
little change from $3,000.
Now for the revelation! There
is a cheaper, and much higher
quality alternative. It's called a
flatbed scanner.
A flatbed scanner is basically a
sophisticated photocopier. In a
photocopier you place the thing to
be copied on the flat glass area and
press the button. The item is
scanned and it is then presented to
you as a black and white or colour
paper copy. A flatbed scanner, on
the other hand, uses software
control to send the scanned
information directly into a
computer for the user to
manipulate.
The overall advantage of using
a flatbed scanner is that it is a
complete image input device; no
other hardware is required. The
output resolution from a flatbed
scanner can easily be three times
that supplied by SVHS or Hi-8
video cameras, and it is usually
cheaper than the camera/grabber
combination. Flatbed s also take up
less room, (no tripods or lights),
and they are less time consuming
to set up.
The only real disadvantage of
using a flatbed scanner is that you
can only capture two-dimensional
objects, whereas with a camera
you can digitize all manner of
three-dimensional items. If you
find that most of your imaging
work deals with paper, then you
should seriously investigate a
flatbed scanner.
Road Testing a Flatbed
A recent arrival to the world of
Amiga imaging is the Migraph
MS 1200 and MS2400 24 bit
colour flatbed scanners, the latter
having a transparency scanning
option. For this review I will
concentrate on their base model,
24
AMIGA Review
the MSI 200.
The scanner offers four
scanning modes; 24 bit colour
(16.8 million colours), 256 grey
levels, monochrome halftones and
also line art! The scanner measures
50cm x 36cm and is constructed
from high impact plastic in
two-tone beige. The actual glass
covered scanning area is 22cm
wide by 36cm long, slightly larger
than a foolscap page. The lid of
the scanner is double hinged so
that it can be bent when working
with thick bound documents or
books.
If oversized documents be-
come a problem, the lid can be
easily removed to accommodate
them. All cabling, including a
SCSI termination block, instruc-
tions and software is also included.
Most flatbed scanners connect
to your computer via a SCSI port,
and the Migraph is no exception. If
your system does not contain any
SCSI devices (the Amiga 1200 for
example uses the IDE standard),
you will need to purchase a SCSI
card if you wish to use flatbed
scanners.
Because the scanner provides
both a 25-pin and 50-pin SCSI
connector on the back of the unit,
you can put it anywhere in your
SCSI chain. All Migraph scanners
are shipped with their SCSI ID
number preset to 4, but you can
change it if it clashes.
The Migraph is not internally
terminated, and if it is the first,
last, or only device in your SCSI
chain you must also connect the
supplied terminator block between
the 50-pin connector on the rear of
the scanner and the cable running
to the computer.
The MS1200 uses the three
pass method; the scanning head
contains three neon tubes, red,
green and blue, so for colour
scanning the unit has to scan three
times to gather the RGB data for
an image. Monochrome capture
only uses the green neon during a
single pass. A full length 24 bit
scan takes one minute and fifty
seconds to complete, and
consumes 7.67Mb of memory,
whereas the equivalent 24 bit scan
of a standard 15cm x 10cm
photograph only requires 26
seconds and 960k.
The Software
The scanning software,
supplied on a single disk, is called
ColorKit Pro and installation is
relatively straightforward using
Migraph's proprietary Install
utility, although I would have
preferred Commodore's install
program, which should be the
standard for all Amiga software.
Scanning in 24 bit colour or
256 greys requires a lot of memory
to store the images as the DPI
(Dots Per Inch) increases. For
example, a 24 bit scan done at
150DPI on a legal sized image
(21cm x 35cm) will result in a file
at least 8Mb in size.
For this reason, the ColorKit
Pro software uses a caching
system to handle the system and
hard disk memory. This manage-
ment system is transparent to the
user and automatically takes over
when there is not enough system
memory available for a task.
The memory manager shuffles
information that is not being
currently used in the system
memory and transfers it to hard
disk in order to free up RAM for
the current task. It continually
shuffles information back and
forth as needed.
The trade off is that caching to
the hard disk is slower than just
using system memory. The only
thing to remember is that the hard
drive must have sufficient free
space.
Scanner Calibration
When an image is scanned,
ColorKit Pro stores each pixel of a
colour image as three intensity
values, one each for red, green and
blue. Each value can range from
zero to 255. Grey scale pixels are
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I Gamma correction calibration requester
AMIGA Review
25
' •'■.-'■• ! — ■■■-
stored as a single intensity value
inthe same range.
ColorKit Pro provides
brightness and contrast controls
that affect the whole image by
globally increasing or decreasing
these values. While these controls
can help improve the image, you
may lose detail. Often, greater
control over image brightness and
contrast is needed. This is where
gamma correction or calibration
comes in.
Calibration is a process used to
correct for any variations in the
image data received from the
scanner. There are two reasons to
calibrate a scanner. The first is to
account for any variations in the
hardware itself. The second is to
have more control over your image
when it will be displayed or
printed on devices that you know
are inaccurate.
While all scanners are
calibrated at the factory, most will
sense shades of grey and colours
slightly differently. Calibration
helps to correct for these inac-
curacies.
Gamma calibration allows you
to control the individual brightness
of specific value ranges for red,
green, blue and grey. So rather
than having to increase the
brightness or contrast over the
entire image, you can control it in
more specific colour ranges.
While calibration need only be
done the very first time you use
the scanner, expert users may
create individual calibration maps
for different images to suit their
needs. Each calibration map has
four colour tables; red, green, blue,
and grey.
Each table, representing a
value range from zero to 255, is
divided into 11 sections. Before
calibration, the map shows the
values from 100 to zero, with 100
being pure red, green or blue and
zero being the total absence of
colour.
In the grey scale table, the
values reflect the grey scale strip,
where segment 1 (pure white) is
zero and 100 represents segment
11, pure black.
After calibration the map
values will reflect any changes the
software had to make to adjust the
colours or greys. The Mi graph
scanner comes with a photo-
graphic grey scale calibration strip
which, when input via the scanner,
will adjust calibration accordingly.
The Requesters
The ColorKit Pro software
contains two custom screens, one
for the display screen and one for
the tool menu. All commands and
requesters are accessed through
the tool menu buttons; there are no
drop down menus.
Dither
There are eight dither patterns
for scanning monochrome half-
tones. Each dither has a different
effect upon the image. It is strictly
a matter of trial and error as to
which dither will produce the best
results for a given image.
DPI
There are two DPI fields, one
for X (horizontal) and one for Y
(vertical). The DPI values are
displayed in black when they
reflect a value in the optical DPI
range of the scanner, Once the
value goes past the optical range,
which means the software has to
stick in extra pixels, the DPI value
will be displayed in a different
colour.
Aspect Ratio
When scanning an image for
video use, you must select the
Pixel Aspect Ratio for the
particular screen display mode you
wish to use. Once a ratio is
selected and the clip box size
determined, the clip box will
remain this ratio. Should the clip
box be resized, the scan DPI will
change so that the clip box width
and height (in pixels) is
maintained.
You can also lock the X and Y
DPI values so when one is edited,
they both change. Having the same
X and Y DPI values will provide a
square aspect ratio (1:1), used by
most high resolution printers.
Model; G*!HS1288
Speed! frIFast
Mode: &i24-Bit Color X DPI: 133
Ditto: 1
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Area! 1*1 CI ip
Height: p7S2~
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I The ColourKit Pro Scan settings requester
26
AMIGA Review
Prescan
This produces a low resolution
preview scan of the entire
scanning bed. Once the preview
scan is complete you may select
the area that you want for the final
scan. On AGA Amigas the
preview scan is displayed in 64
colours; older machines use eight
colours.
The Display Menu
The display requester lists the
available screen display modes.
The ColorKit Pro software does
not currently support direct display
on any 24 bit video cards, although
drivers are currently being written
to support the Piccolo and
Opalvision cards.
Error Correction
This option provides greater
colour trueness when displaying
an image using fewer colours than
are in the raw image data. In
almost all cases it greatly improves
the image display, by giving the
illusion of more colours than are
actually present.
Because the normal Amiga
screen has a limited palette, the
rendered display (without error
correction) may look quite
different to the original. The
difference between the pixel
colour in the raw data and the
display is referred to as the "error".
ColorKit Pro's error correction
uses dithering to diffuse or spread
out the error, thereby producing an
image closer in colour to the
original. While dithering does
produce a better looking image, it
is sometimes at the expense of
image sharpness. This is because
all the pixels in the image are
adjusted, not just a few of them,
High Quality mode is another
way to improve the look of the
displayed image. On AGA
machines, High Quality provides a
better looking image because the
I Left uncorrected 16 colour, right error corrected
software works harder to select a
better colour match from the 16.8
million colours available.
Depending on the speed of the
computer's processor, un accel-
erated A1200 owners may need to
allow a lot of time for this option.
On a non-AGA machine, the
High Quality option will produce
little noticeable improvement in
the image and will take a lot more
time to calculate.
Saving
ColorKit Pro allows you to
save in all IFF formats including
24 bit, and you can also save
images in the TIFF format. When
TIFF is selected you have the
option to choose LZW file com-
pression to reduce image file sizes.
The Info Requester
The Information / Option re-
quester is where the hard drive
caching path and cache size is set.
The scanner's SCSI ID number
and SCSI device are also listed.
The default SCSI device for the
Migraph scanner is "SCSI. device",
but owners of GVP SCSI
controllers will have to change the
name to gvpscsi.de vice, otherwise
the scanner will not operate at all.
This problem has been over-
come with the latest version of the
ColorKit Pro software, which has
a SCSI test utility which tells you
the SCSI number (and name) of
your controller, as well as the
SCSI number of the connected
scanner.
Bonus
As well as the ColorKit Pro
scanning software, Migraph also
supply an Optical Character
Recognition (OCR) program. This
is a powerful, intelligent, full
featured text reading application.
Accurate OCR is the fastest way to
convert printed text into an ASCII
text file which can be loaded
directly into word processing and
desktop publishing programs. A
full review of OCR will feature in
an upcomming issue of ACAR.
The Migraph MS1200 flatbed
scanner retails for $2,179.00 and
is available from Comprepair.
For further information call:
(03) 326 0133.
P
AMIGA Review
27
Mce> better effects
By Peter J. Ward
**Sock removing animation now even easier.
I Imagine is somewhat unique
among Amiga 3D modeling and
animation programs thanks to its
sheer longevity. In its infancy,
nearly ten years ago, Imagine was
known as Silver, and later Turbo
Silver. It had a very esoteric
interface (I'm being kind), but also
capabilities no other rendering
program could match.
They included sophisticated
brush and texture mapping, plus a
good range of modeling tools.
Silver's animation editor, however,
was clumsy. This was addressed in
the next update, simply called
Imagine, and the latest of many
incarnations is Version 3.0,
Previous users of Version 2,0
will find, on the surface at least,
not a lot has changed. Looking a
little deeper, however, reveals
some significant enhancements.
What's new?
At last, Imagine users are
blessed with a functional manual,
all 352 pages of it. There is a table
of contents, glossary and index.
Ten chapters take users through
the functional elements of the
program, with many tutorials to
illustrate modeling or animation
features. Numerous complex
operations, such as brush mapping,
have been explained well and in
more detail, but there are still
some glaring omissions. For
example, bit mapped font-object
creation is not explained at all
(refer to Manual Version 2.0),
there is only a passing mention for
animation-brush mapping, and the
index is not very comprehensive.
While several other features are
simply glossed over, the manual is
still a vast improvement over
earlier versions.
The software is supplied on
three floppy disks and installed via
Commodore's Installer program.
No difficulties here, though 1 have
to ask, does anybody really use a
rendering program without a math
co-processor? If your answer is
yes, you will not be disappointed,
as a fixed point version of the
program is also supplied.
The manual does not mention
system requirements. This may
have something to do with the fact
that Imagine 3.0 is available in
both IBM and Amiga versions,
with one common manual. This is
of little real concern, with
differences only becoming app-
arent in available display options
plus a few keyboard combinations.
If you can use Imagine on an
Amiga, then moving to a PC will
be easy.
For Amiga users, I'd suggest a
minimum of 4Mb of RAM, plus a
hard disk and a math co-processor.
An ideal platform would be a
A4000/040 with 20Mb of RAM
plus a removable hard disk drive.
24 bit display cards such as
Opalvision and Firecracker are
directly supported by the software.
Both greatly enhance images
produced by Imagine.
The Imagine programmers
have retained the "quad view"
object editing environment of the
software. Objects are presented in
28
AMIGA Review
$599.
PCMCIA
CD ROM
forA1200&A600
D.S.S Photo ^
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Video Equipment
GVPTBCPlus
Time Based Corrector with
full Sbit 4:2.2 CCIR-601
DSP for Broadcast Qualtiy
video output! $1 695
Montage 24
24-bit video titling and
graphics generator $495
Electronic Design
^^Sirius Genlocks $1425
E B^ C GenIock S775
; ^B S^al Genlock $575
^Pvideo Converter $395
Frames 5 VLab 1200 $795
Application
Software
PAGESTREAM 3 $595
TAKE 2 VIDEO $109
VISTA PRO Lite $69
Clarissa Video Aninvr $199
Adorage Video Effects $1 99
DEVPAC 3 $199.
DELUX PAINT 4.5 $125
ADPRO 2.5 $279
ART Expression $279
IMAGINE 3 $585
VIDEO Director $275
REAL 3D $699
IMAGEMASTER RT $185
FINAL WRITER $195
CD Software includes -
Aminet 1 & 2, Video Creator,
17Bit 1 & 2, Euroscene, PD 1,
2 & 3, Demo 1 & 2.
A200rM
SCALA
MM311
MM211
MM500
$579
$299
$149
AMIGA 4000
A4000 '030/'040 basic ma-
chine or with your choice of
enhancements. RAM, bigger
drives, boards etc. You call
and we will supply.
Best of all the PRICE will
please you and our SER-
VICE Surprise you.
Hard Drives
I27mb 2V2" for
A1200 $449
210 mb $695
480 mb $1345
5£SI II Hard Drives
345 mb $679 545 mb $899
1.05G$1545 1.8G$1995
2.1G$3745 4.2G$4299
9.1Gig$7999 Syquest .
105 $899 - 270 $1399
150 Bernoulli $1350
RAM Expansion
A500 1/2 mb
$59
A540 ! -4mb exp from
$245
A600
$135
4mbforA4000
$345
MBX 1200 0KRAM
$275
MBX 1200 I mb
$345
2 mb chip RAM exp
$299
SGV 3
A1200 SCSI/RAM 4mb
$895
AI230 40mhz/4mb
£1195
General GLock from
S899
Digital Sound Studio Plus £185
1V25-S $2695
Retina 24 bit S845
GForce Combo 40/4meg S1295
A500 Impact 11/80 meg $895
Series II 200O0hc8 £345
EGS 28/24 Hi Res Gfx £1145
A4000 A4O08 SCSI Ctrl $345
A4000 040/33 '040 hoard
for '030 A4000s $Call
Ami a a 1200
days flor a
«d refund.
Best A 1200 System prices,
eg: A1200 33Mhz/ SCSI/
4Mb Fast RAM/2 Chip
RAM & monitor All for
only $2600.
A1200 Add-ons
Rain expansions from $275
030 Accelerators from S890
SCSI Controllers from $599
CD ROM Drives
Xetec CD ROM-
* Drivers $145
;;> NEC 25 S/spin $399
NEC2I0D/Spin$699
NEC 510 Tripple spin $899
Monitors
1084S New $295
1942 Multisync $695
Multisync from $545
EMPLANT
The 'Mac' Emulator now
has clean 32bit support &
(Coming Soon)
full PC support. $795
CD32 -now with MPEG
The Ultimate Entertainment
Module $495
Now in MPEG module for
CD Videos. $Call
Miscellaneous
Octagon SCSI II HD controlIcrS245
Multiface II multi serial port SI 79
DKB 4091 controller $899
A2000IntFDD SI 69
A 1200 docks $49
8Mb Ext RAM A500 pass tbr,$8 Q
3 1/2 External FDD 5149
CPU Cooler for A4000 $35
CD32
Games Pack 3S
$100
AMIGA Cards
Accelerators
GVP A1230
4/40 030
$1195
CSA 12 Gauge from $850
Choose from 33 or50Mhz '030
processor plus RAM and SCSI
CSA Magnum 040 $1895
CSA Derringer from $695
The ULTIMATE A 1200 speed-up
board. Choose from 25 or 30Mhz
processors with RAM + co-pro.
A4000 GVP Exchange
'040 40Mhz b'd $1900
Really see what your A4000 is
capable of. Exchange your current
poorly designed board for the GVP
040/40Mhz board & see sparks fly.
24bit Cards
Opal Vision
EGS 1 meg
EGS 2 meg
Picasso II RTG
Piccollo + VID
$1295
$995
$1145
$1095
SI 195
I
Audio Cards
Sunrise 1012 $995
Sunrise 516 $2295
GVPDSS $175
Clarissa 16Bit$395
New ALFA DATA Product
Special intro stock -
A1200RAMbd lmb inc. $185
Colour Hand Scanners $545
800DPI Hand Scanner $199
ALFA-Scan Plus inc OCR $325
EDYC \
Genlocks
$595
Calf our FREE Support BBS (02) 544 1248
We use & sell: Maestro 14400+Fax $499 inc GPFax
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Regional (044) 738 848 (fl
simultaneous plan, elevation, side
elevation and perspective views.
There is one significant change
here. Moving the mouse cursor to
the perspective view and holding
down the left button lets you
rotate, pan and zoom around a 3D
representation of the object in real
time!
Oject Creation
For object creation and
modeling, few programs surpass
Imagine. To illustrate the point,
page 91 of the manual has a
simply superb object modeled by
Alan Henry: a bee in flight. I tried
to model a similar object using
Real 3D (admittedly an older
version) and gave up. The task
proved to be too difficult for just
one afternoon. Imagine has just so
many good real world object
creation tools that it almost invites
the user to create similar complex
forms with little or no
impediments.
Object can first be "roughed
out" using the forms editor (which
has seen little or no change from
version 2.0). Here a primitive
form, such as a sphere, cylinder or
cross-section such as an airfoil can
be manipulated with ease. In the
forms editor, points can be pushed,
pulled, snapped to a grid and
generally deformed at will with
real time feedback. While the
forms editor takes some getting
used to, its relatively simple tools
can be used to create some
remarkably complex shapes.
Within the forms editor a
technique called "key slicing" can
be used to build up complex
profiles, such as the fuselage of an
aircraft or yacht hull. The program
automatically computes the
surface changes along the length
of the object as its form changes
from a circle to a square to a
hexagon, for example. Once an
object has been created in the
forms editor, it can be saved and
reloaded for further embellishment
in the detail editor.
The spline editor is new to
version 3.0. and it is here that
smooth "cookie cutter" shapes can
be made and extruded into the
third dimension, for the edge of a
lake or puddle for example. The
main function for the spline editor
is to create smooth 3D text or titles
using spline based Postscript fonts.
According to the manual, just
type the text, decide whether you
want flat, beveled or rounded
edges, and click; all done! Sadly,
this is not the case. After loading
several Postscript fonts and typing
through the alphabet many, many
times I could not get a single letter
to load. I was frankly stunned by
this bug.
There was a glaring need for
Impulse to improve Imagine ■$ text
handling, especially when com-
peting programs like Real 3D
handle text so well. Postscript font
support was an excellent solution
(for Amiga users, CompuGraphic
font support would have been even
better), but as far as I can tell, it
simply doesn't work.
By the way, the font saga
doesn't finish here. In the detail
editor, users of Imagine 2.0 can
load a standard Amiga font, which
can be automatically traced and
converted into a 3D object. My
copy of version 2.0 Still does this
well. Sadly, version 3.0 tells me
that the font image is "blank" and
produces nothing at all. In
desperation I tried importing and
autotracing a Deluxe Paint IFF text
image, which worked. If the
people at Impulse want Imagine to
succeed, then a version 3.1 fix is
needed here immediately.
Within the Detail editor,
objects can be created from
scratch, on a point by point basis.
Primitive shapes such as spheres,
tubes, cones, cubes and so on or a
Forms object can also be loaded.
The software now allows powerful
object deformations such as
twisting, bending, stretching and
smoothing. Objects can be
conformed to a sphere, cylinder or
user defined path. Bitmapped
images can be applied to the
surface of an object, resulting in
protrusions and indentations on the
face of the object which
correspond to the grey scale
intensity of the bit map (there is
also a rendering process called
"bump mapping" which should not
be confused with this object
creation tool).
The list goes on: there's a wave
tool, that gives the surface of an
object a wavy structure like ripples
on a pond. Latticize transforms
continuous surfaces into a grid
object, ideal for forming
scaffold-like structures. Flat
objects can be extruded into the
third dimension, such as lettering
into 3D titling. Extrusions do not
need to be linear either, they can
follow a user defined path or
rotation and be scaled in the
process. Using this tool, objects
such as flags, springs and snakes
can be easily created.
A particularly powerful new
operator is "particles", which
converts the elements or faces of
an object into discrete particles.
These can be small cubes or
spheres, or a number of other
primitive forms, or a user defined
object. Using particles it is
possible to create an object, like a
30
AMIGA Review
whale for example, which is made
up of hundreds, or thousands, of
tiny fish. The possibilities here are
immense, but the price is memory
requirements and rendering time,
which increase exponentially.
Another new animation tool is the
ability to give an object "bones".
Bones are a series of user defined
structures, rather like an object
axis, that let an object with a
continuous skin move in a fluid or
organic manner. This tool allows
animations such an man walking
or bird flying to take on a natural
movement that is simply not
possible using any other package.
Textures
The Detail Editor also lets you
give objects some remarkable
textures and qualities. Imagine 3.0
now has a simply vast range of
textures. The list includes over one
hundred predefined surfaces
including: bathtile, oldbricks,
veneer, ghost, coolfire, bumpnoise,
deathstar and beammeup. Users
can also modify any of the above
textures, or simply create and save
their own with an appropriate
label. If that isn't enough you can
also apply a bit map, such as an
image of a Coca Cola label
captured by a scanner or drawn in
a paint program, to any object.
Both texture and bit maps can
be applied in a number of ways.
Textures can now be applied to
selected faces of an object, rather
than the whole object as in
previous versions of Imagine.
Version 3.0 goes one further and
also allows "texture mapping", or
application of a texture to an
object within user defined
dimensional boundaries and
wrapping techniques, much as
brush or image maps were applied
using earlier versions of the
software. Imagine 3.0 supports
colour, reflective, filter and
altitude maps in single or
unlimited multiple combinations.
For example you could colour
map a frog skin texture to a model
of a frog (or prince), and then give
the object a rough texture by also
applying a altitude map of this or
another texture or bit map image.
Perhaps the modeling coup de
grace is Version 3.0's ability to
load and save ,DXF format (ie:
AutoCAD) objects. There must be
gigabytes of bridges, buildings,
aircraft, parts and widgets floating
around in IBM cyberspace. They
can now be accessed by your
Amiga, rendered and animated,
but since I'm not an AutoCAD
user, I couldn't test whether the
translation of these files does in
fact work. Enough said for now.
Animation
Imagine 3.0 has been designed
with a strong emphasis on
animation, which is handled by the
Stage and Action editors. There is
also the cycle editor, again
unchanged from earlier versions of
Imagine but still very useful for
creating repetitive or cyclic
motions. The stage editor is where
individual objects and lights are
placed and viewpoint established.
By simply clicking on the camera
and moving it around the stage, a
simplified version of object
positions and perspectives is
updated in the perspective display
of the quad view.
This impressive feature lets the
user quickly zero in on just the
right camera perspective, or
staging of objects.
Imagine now supports lighting
and camera "lines". These are lines
drawn in the quad view that
symbolise the current field of view
of the camera or the area
illuminated by a light source. Both
greatly speed up the process of
creating a rendering or animation,
as you no longer have to wait for a
complete render to discover
exactly how a camera frames the
scene or where a spotlight is
placed on the rendering stage.
The animation creation process
has also been given a boost in
Imagine 3.0. You can quickly
preview object and camera
movements, and you can specify
via a "quick stage" option that
only object bounding boxes be
drawn in the perspective view
when creating a wire frame
preview. This option gives a fast
rough idea of relative motions,
letting you concentrate on the
animation process as well as create
complex animations that would
have previously been bogged
down by superfluous details.
There is also a "bluing" option:
a 3D version of the onion skinning
that 2D eel animation packages
use, which displays ghosts of the
objects from previous frames on
the current one.
Imagine 3.0 offers excellent
control over object and camera
motion. Objects can be "key
framed", given linear or spline
based motion, made to follow
other objects (as can the camera
and lights), accelerated or
decelerated between key frames
and made to follow a used defined
path. Objects can also be morphed
in any of a number of ways;
colour, texture, transparency, re-
flectivity, size, shape, in fact any
attribute, may be smoothly altered
over time. There are also up to
four special effects that can be
AMIGA Review
31
applied at any one time to a
particular object. The (often) self
explanatory names of these
include boing, explode, fireworks,
flash, grow, ripple, rotate, tumble
plus a new effect called
"particles", a sophisticated version
of explode. Here an object can be
shattered either wholly or partly.
The resulting fragments can be
allowed to fall, be caught by a user
defined breeze or hurricane, plus
bounce off a ground plane.
Within the Action editor users
can define a number of para-
meters; the number of frames
within an animation, the general
level and colour of ambient
lighting, whether or not shadows
are cast by various lights, image
files which show in object
reflections, backdrop images and
so on. Users can also define the
amount of "global fog" in a scene,
colour of the zenith, horizon and
nadir plus the density of stars in
the Imagine sky.
A new addition is object
association. Here an object' is
given a relative distance from and
orientation to a parent object. A
camera could be associated with
an aircraft, allowing it to pitch and
roll as it follows its subject from a
pre-defined distance. More inter-
estingly, associations can be amen-
ded as an animation progresses,
such as a flock of birds following a
leader, which itself is following a
motion hierachy. Also new is the
type of lighting; light rays can now
emanate from a point or parallel
light source, though the latter does
not cause penumbral shadows.
Also new is camera depth of
field. This isn't mentioned in the
manual, but there are a few notes
on the program disk which help
you explore this powerful feature.
Objects can now be assigned
"states". For example while
creating an object, it could be
given a green colour and saved as
one state. It could then be changed
to red and saved as another "state"
of the same object, with the
transition taking place over one or
several frames when called for via
the action editor.
Lastly, objects can be placed
on a specific level or "layer" of an
animation. This tool is intended to
speed up the animation creation
process by hiding an object that
would normally be drawn by the
tenderer. This greatly speeds up
test rendering of complex scenes
and keeps the whole animation
process flowing by making it
possible to concent rate on specific
elements within an animation.
Preferences
Imagine 3.0 offers users a good
degree of control over the editing
environment via the preferences
editor. Here you can define screen
colour and resolutions, gadget
functions, quick rendering mode,
antialiasing, number of reflections
in ray traced scenes and various
function key operations for each of
the editors, among others. Most of
the Imagine operating environment
can be customised and saved with
or for specific projects.
Similarly, in the project editor,
users can define the type of
rendering or ray tracing method
the program is to use. These can
range from a simple wire frame to
a photorealistic rendering of a
scene. Imagine has changed little
here, except for direct Opalvision
24 bit display support and IBM PC
format images and screen
resolutions. Image sizes can be up
to 16,000 by 16,000 pixels,
making Imagine an excellent tool
for film applications, though one
does wonder just how long a
16,000 square pixel image would
take to ray trace on even the fastest
Amiga or PC. Even modest 2000
by 1700 images, ray traced by
Imagine 2.0 for the now defunct
Professional Amiga User maga-
zine, took eight to 24 hours on a
25MHz 030 Amiga.
Apart from the manual, a book
could also be written on the
features of Imagine. The program
is vast, and many of its features
have not been mentioned here.
Imagine 3.0 is not a simple
program for new users to master.
Hardened Imagine 2.0 users,
however, will find the step to 3.0
easy. There are still some features
I'd like to see, such as collision
detection, momentum and external
forces such as gravity applied to
whole objects, in addition to the
particle special effect seen in this
latest release. Penumbral shadows
associated with objects instead of
light edges would be a welcome
addition. Perhaps these will be
seen in the next release. There are
also the Postscript and bit mapped
font problems.
But for now, consider the
following animation. Darkness. A
shaft of light appears, pans across
a marble floor, as does the camera,
which reveals a hand floating just
above a pedestal. Zoom in. The
hand smoothly opens, revealing a
ball. The open hand rotates,
causing the ball to fall toward the
pedestal. The ball, as it bounces,
gradually turns into an apple. As
the apple is about to fall a second
time, it gradually turns into solid
glass. A bullet pierces the apple in
slow motion. It fractures into
pieces which begin to fly in all
directions. Zoom out. The pieces
are seen to be carried by the wind
as they fall to the floor and bounce
once or twice more, for good
measure. Hardly in the same
league as Spielberg, but fun to
watch just the same.
I'm trying to think of another
software package that can accom-
plish all of the above for only a
few hundred dollars, but for now I
just can't Imagine what it would
be called...
32
AMIGA Review
Happy Reader!
I recently bought your
magazine, and I found that it is a
lot better than some of the English
magazines with cover disks.
ACAR isn't full of stupid game
reviews and advertisements; it's
full of interesting reviews. And it's
Australian! I didn't even know an
Australian Amiga magazine ex-
isted!
Would it be too much trouble
to put a cover disk on the front?
It's not necessary, though; all the
stuff inside makes up for it! I will
continue to buy your magazine -
keep up the good work.
Jay Paul, St George Qld
Ed: Thanks for your support,
Jay. The issue of the coverdisk is
an endless saga; basically, we've
already got the Hot PD companion
disks every couple of months, and
people who don 't want them don 't
have to order them. Adding a disk
to every magazine considerably
increases distribution costs, not to
mention the expense of having all
the disks duplicated.
We hope you like the new
ACAR format - more pages, but
not more ads!
Hard Drive Help
I own an Amiga 500 with 1Mb
RAM, an external floppy drive
running Workbench 1.3. I'm now
considering purchasing a hard
disk.
I want a drive that will let me
store Workbench and a couple of
word processors, but the shops
keep trying to talk me into buying
really expensive units - "the bigger
the better", they often suggest.
Furthermore, I can't
understand the jargon regarding
SCSI, etc. I can't afford a "mega"
drive, but 1 don't want to make a
mistake either.
Ed: The classic cheap ASOO
hard drive is Commodore's old
A590, which in standard trim
comes with a 20Mb XT-IDE drive
and provision for 2Mb of RAM
expansion. The A590s haven't been
made for a while, but there are
plenty around in the second hand
market.
A second hand standard A590
sounds as if it'd suit your needs,
and it shouldn't cost more than a
couple of hundred bucks. The old
drives aren't dreadfully reliable
any more, though, so you might
like to consider an A590 with a
SCSI drive in it.
The A590 has a SCSI
controller as well as the XT-IDE,
and can talk to any SCSI drive,
even today 's multi thousand dollar
monsters, so you can plug as big
(or as small) a SCSI drive into it
as you like. If it's a 3.5 inch drive
it'll fit inside. The advantage of
going this way is that if you
upgrade to a more powerful
computer you can use the same
drive.
Amiga Expertise
As a moderately experienced
computer user, I'm occasionally
called upon by my colleagues to
help them sort out problems
they're having with their Windows
(sound of mouth being vigorously
washed out with soap) computers.
I wonder, if the tables were turned,
how good an average Windows
user would be at helping us!
Head to head competitions are
common for comparing hardware
and software. Why not run a head
to head with "liveware"?
Get a proficient Amiga user
and a Windows user, swap their
computers and give them some
obscure operating system problem
to sort out with only the manuals
and their experience with their
own platform to help them. Who
would come out ahead?
You could give marks on
originality, speed, elegance of the
solution and general demeanour at
the end of the day. It wouldn't be
entirely scientific, but it might be
fun!
Tim Polmear, South Hedland WA
Ed: Since we produce both PC
Review and ACAR, we've got a
pretty good idea of the sorts of
people that use IBM compatibles
andAmigas. Overall, you're right;
Amiga users tend to be more
competent operators than IBM
people. A rough analogy would be
the mass of people who buy an
"ordinary" mass market car, and
the smaller group of aficionadoes
who go instead for an unusual
vehicle - De Loreans may not be
very well supported at the local
garage, but they're certainly more
advanced!
Don't take this as a universal
affirmation that Amiga users are
all experts and IBM owners all
ignoramuses, though!
Pro Page Paralysis
I have an Amiga 2000 with
WB2, a 40Mb hard drive, a
VXL30 accelerator and an Octo-
plus memory card with 2Mb of
fast RAM. My problem is that
after quitting Professional Page
4.1, my computer crashes, giving a
software failure with error number
80000003. What do you think
could be causing this?
Darren Healey, Heathridge WA
Ed: We use Pro Page 4.1 all
the time, and we occasionally get
recoverable alerts or worse
failures. One of Pro Page's
trademarks is the recoverable alert
on quitting, which in our
experience doesn't crash the
computer but keeps recurring until
you manage to click on the
AMIGA Review
33
Workbench, for some bizarre
reason.
Your problem, however, is odd,
since it's so repeatable (the
wonderful thing about most Pro
Page crashes is they 're completely
unpredictable). An SOOOOOOx error
number is symptomutic of a pro-
gram that's not written properly
for Workbench 2 (these failures
used to be very common, when
WB2 was young and a lot of old,
badly written programs were still
around), but Pro Page works
pretty much OK on most WB2
systems.
It could perhaps be because
you don't have any 32 bit fast
RAM, and not much 16 bit fast
RAM, but we're only suggesting
that because it seems to be the
only odd thing about your system.
Attention George Kimpton!
Thank you for the publicity in
your article "DPTute: the DPaint
beginner's friend" (May ACAR). I
did not find the article the least bit
inaccurate, but I'd like to clarify
several points.
DPTute is not intended for
private use, where the owner has
unlimited access to the DPaint
manual. DPTute is designed for
use in schools.
My partner and I are both
Media Studies teachers, and
frequently use DPaint in the
classroom. It is impossible for all
of our students to read the DPaint
manual. It is also impossible for a
teacher to provide extensive one
on one instruction for each
student.
DPTute is a manual substitute
for students. It allows them the
freedom to learn what they want
when they want. They may read,
view and print everything or
simply refer to it occasionally.
Thank you for your review and
your time.
Ross Williams, Partner,
T.O.A.D. Interactive Education
On Screen
Q&A
Naughty Gareth!
I can't let your games reviewer,
Gareth Powell, get away with his
review of Sensible Soccer in the
March ACAR. Sensible Soccer is
probably the finest soccer simu-
lation ever made.
The first point I have is
Gareth's statement "...all the
players have white skin and black
hair." WHAT? Now, I haven't
played the CD-32 edition, but it
can 't be much different from the
disk version. If Gareth had
bothered to look at the screen shot
in the top left corner of HIS
review, he'd have noticed that next
to the players ' numbers down the
left are pictures of their heads
which, with little trouble, can be
altered to change the skin and hair
colour.
Even if he didn 't see the screen
(which he would have done, by
playing the game), he should have
seen how to do it in the instruction
manual. This manual, by the way,
also mentions that you can press-
space to save highlights to view at
the end of the game and pressing R
shows the last few seconds of the
game. I also believe that the view
from high above the ground is one
of the best and most original views
I've seen.
Sensible Soccer might not live
up to the high CD standards of
other games, but it IS the best
soccer game available at the
moment.
Robert Fleming, Clarence, Tas.
Tut, tut Gareth!
Am I missing something? The
Kingmaker review, May ACAR,
mentions a SoundBlaster card.
How do I install it in my A500?
Maybe Gareth thought he was
writing for PC Review?
Thanks for a great mag. I'm
really enjoying the recent im-
provements.
Aoin Blinkhorm (this probably
isn't the person's name, but it's
what his or her signature looks
like)
Ed: Gareth Powell has been
slapped on the wrist. He promises
not to do it again.
Loading Blues
1 have a problem with the
CD32 game "Whales Voyage" not
loading from the same point in the
game every time. It always crashes
when you go into "manual" battle.
I'd like to know if anybody knows
of this problem.
This is my second CD of the
game, so I believe it's a software
problem, is there anything I can
do?
Robert Brown, Bohle Qld
Pricing Feedback
This is in reference to the letter
from Michael Saunders of Salis-
bury, SA, in the June ACAR.
He asks why Microcosm for
CD32 costs $129 in Australia
when he's seen it advertised in the
UK for 30 pounds. What Michael
could not know is that Microcosm
costs the importer a whopping 45
per cent more than any other
CD32 title. The reason is that the
34
AMIGA Review
development costs were much
greater than those for most titles.
How it can be advertised in the
UK for 30 pounds is anybody's
guess. Perhaps it was distressed
stock, perhaps a loss leader to get
the buyer in - who knows?
Michael comments that Liber-
ation sells here for "just $69".
What he does not say is that the
usual advertised price of Liber-
ation in the UK is 35 pounds!
Until very recently the exchange
rate A$ to UK pound was 2.2 - add
shipping costs and the price in
Australia should have been at least
$89.
The importer, Hotpoint Inter-
active Entertainment, always tries
to bring in enough stock to keep
the prices down.
Remember, however, that here
in Australia we're buying for a
market of just eighteen million
people - the UK market is more
than sixty million! Some larger
software houses in the UK buy
more stock for themselves from
the software producers than we do
for the whole of Australia!
Market size has a major impact
on pricing. You'd notice that
generally, even European software
is cheaper in the USA than here in
Australia. Again, the reason is the
size of the market.
Michael's comment that
consumers should vote with their
wallets and buy overseas will
achieve only one end - prices for
quality software in Australia will
rise significantly.
Howard Needleman, Hotpoint
Steel Sky Puzzle
I am stuck in Beneath a Steel
Sky. I've tried just about every-
thing, but I can't get past the hole
in the tunnel where that monster is.
What do I have to do?
Parry Tsamourtzis
Ed.lf anyone can kelp Parry with
this problem, feel free to write in
and tell us. We'll publish the
answer. Sorry Parry, but no one
here is a big Beneath a Steel Sky
player, and we just didn 't have the
time to check it out.
Shrinking entertainment?
What's the story with the
entertainment section of the mag?
It's gradually been getting smaller
in the last few issues, and in June
it ended up with a meagre 12
pages. This is contrary to the
direction of the Amiga lately, with
the CD32 being Commodore's
driving force. If you're going to
expand the magazine, make the
first thing to grow the games
section.
While I'm writing, I'd also like
to add my piece to the debate over
the price of games in this country.
I consider $50 to $80 to be a
sensible price to pay for a full
price game - I've even noticed the
occasional game retailing cheaper
here than in Britain. But what
really annoys me is that there's no
budget range here.
Fly Harder and Stardust, both
wonderful products, were written
specifically for budget release but
they're full price here. Is this
Hotpoint 's doing?
Whoever it is, they're not only
doing the dirty on us, but on the
software houses as well, since they
made these games with the
intention of them being sold
cheap. Even cheap re-releases
which are being sold by the
truckload in Britain are a rare sight
here.
Finally, I noticed in your reply
to Tim Folmear's letter in June
that you seem to think a magazine
can can either be entertaining or
informative. Rubbish! A bit of
artistic flair never hurt anyone's
retina and is especially suitable for
the entertainment section. The
content remains the same, it just
looks better. Anyway, thanks for
the air time; keep up the (mostly)
good work.
Steven Burns, Sydney NSW
Ed: Well, Steven, you'll no
doubt be overjoyed that the games
section 's become smaller, while the
mag continues to grow! The
reason for this is that we don't
quite agree with you when you say
that games are the Amiga 's prime
market.
The whole point of the CD32 is
it's NOT just another Nintendo or
Sega; it's a games console, sure,
but it's also a CD player, a full
multimedia computer system with
the addition of a keyboard and
mouse, and even an MPEG video
player with the module. Check out
our review of Video Creator in this
issue for an idea of where CD32
software is going, and what the
system is actually capable of!
Furthermore, dedicated game
players already have huge, glossy
magazines dedicated to them. If
you want the hot gossip on the
very newest Euro- games, go buy a
Euro-magazine. They run on far
bigger budgets than us, and we're
not about to compete. We'll cover
the more interesting game re-
leases, certainly, but we'll leave
the total overview to those who do
it best.
On the subject of design, what
do you think of the current
incarnation of Amiga Review? It's
now being designed by the same
team that do PC Review and used
to do Pro Amiga User -feedback is
welcome!
Send your letters to:
PO Box 288,
Gladesville NSW 2111
AMIGA Review
35
Dear Helpline, this is the first
time I have contacted your
magazine. I need some help and
advice. I currently own an A1200
with a 1942 monitor and MBX
1200 RAM card with FPU and
2Mb fast RAM, and an external
fax modem.
I am going to start a university
degree in 1995, and the content
requires that 1 own an IBM. I will
not part with my Amiga, as it has a
far greater potential than the IBM.
Is an IBM emulator card available
for my A1200? If so, what does it
cost?
Finally, I seem to have an
intermittent problem with my
A1200. Sometimes when I tum it
on I get the ROM screen with the
disk moving towards the drive
instead of a normal boot. Can you
help me?
Darren Kenway
ACAR: As far as we know
there is no A1200 hardware PC
emulator available. The closest
thing we have in Australia at
present is software emulation in
the form of PC-Task.
PC -Task is an Aussie made
product which uses software
trickery to enable you to run basic
IBM programs and use MS-DOS.
Unfortunately, though, it doesn't
yet allow you to run Windows.
Quasar Distribution, the distrib-
utor of PC -Task, promise a
Windows-capable version soon.
There are hardware emulators
available for the A500, and
several bridgeboards out for the
A2000, A3000 andA4000.
The problem with your hard
drive sometimes not booting may
just be because the drive's a little
slow off the mark. Sometimes the
controller checks for drives before
the drive has completely powered
up. If this happens regularly then
get it checked out, but if it only
does it now and then you probably
don't have anything to worry
about.
Dear Helpline, I am writing in
the hope that you might provide
some insight into the current
"Stalemate" situation I find myself
in. I am fairly new to the Amiga in
that I have owned an Amiga for
the past couple of years or so and
now own an A 1200.
My interests vary, but I have
only a rudimentary knowledge of
"how things actually work". I have
three young children and conse-
quently little spare time, but would
like to learn much more about how
the Amiga works and about
programming.
Finding that there there are
many popular programming media
such as BASIC, Blitz Basic,
AMOS, C, Assembler, AREXX,
CanDo, and probably many more,
I am somewhat unable to decide
which would be the best one to
invest my time in.
As mentioned, 1 want to learn
how the Am}ga actually makes
things happen, such as saving,
printing, making directories and so
on. Even though CanDo can do all
these things (I bought a copy last
year), I am unable to determine
which is the best source of
information and as I'm not the
brightest kid on the block, 1 would
appreciate a degree of simplicity:
I do want versatility as well,
which may complicate things
somewhat. Do you have any
suggestions? Are there any
publications which clearly explain
the composition of libraries, the
use of directories and why CLI
says "Unknown command" when I
type in run etc?
Are there any courses available
for programming on Amigas - or
does one have to learn to program
a DOS dinosaur first, and then
come back to the Amiga later?
Friends advise me that BASIC
is difficult, cumbersome and slow
to operate. The magazines infer
that assembly language is for
advanced users - but with limited
time available, how does one
become an advanced user?
An ad which appears in the Jan
1994 ACAR for Blitz Basic 2 is a
good example of an ad which
would never persuade me to
attempt to use that language. What
on earth is a "User interface
Generator", or a "Slice Control"?
Forgive my ramblings, but I
hope you understand my
frustration. If you have any
suggestions I would be most
grateful. By the way, I think
CanDo is very good, but to use an
analogy, "using a calculator will
not teach you to add up". Thank
you for your valued assistance,
Mr P. Reed Mount Warrigal NSW
mu
yiDtv
AMIGA TRAINING
PH: (02) 411-2108 FOR MORE INFO
36
AMIGA Review
ACAR: To begin with,
programming is not easy. Most
commercial programs on the
market are the result of up to five
years of continuous work and
development, with experienced
programmers locking themselves
away, totally committed and living
on takeaway pizza.
Years ago, programmers got
around In white suits, were
balding (from continuous tugging
of the hair), and were considered
either fruitcakes or geniuses.
These days many languages are
available (such as AMOS and Blitz
Basic etc), to make it easier to
program by taking out a lot of the
laborious work, but they are still
tools to help you with your work, a
means to an end.
Programming is still not easy.
It still takes a lot of hard work and
dedication. From your letter it
sounds like you need to work out
what you want to do.
My advice (you did ask for it)
is to work out what you want to
do. Are you interested in writing
games? Would you like to create
an accounting package? Would
you like to make some educational
software? Decide what type of
application you want to create,
then select a language that is
suited to that application.
Some languages are better at
graphics, so they are better suited
for games and anything that uses
or manipulates a lot of images.
Some are better suited to
mathematical calculation, and are
therefore good for programs that
do a lot of number crunching.
Read the manuals, but more
than anything experiment, start
asking yourself "I wonder what
would happen if I tried this..." or
"How can I make this happen?"
Join an Amiga user group, set
aside . "computer time" on a
regular basis with some tasks to
accomplish in that time.
Once you know what you want
to do, talk to lots of Amiga dealers
and users and get their opinions
on what you need. But make sure
you concentrate on one thing at a
time and experiment a lot.
Dear Helpline, I have an
Amiga 1200 computer for my
children, as I feel that kids should
be introduced to computers at an
early age. It is set up in their room,
my children are aged four, seven
and nine.
The seven and nine year olds
are fine with the computer, but the
youngest has a tendency to "play"
with the keyboard. I am a little
worried that he may delete or ruin
something when we are not around
to watch. Is there anything 1 can
do before he does some damage?
Rebecca Cowdroy, St Ives NSW
ACAR: In Workbench 2 and
above there is a command in your
C directory called Lock. This
command enables you to lock both
the Workbench and Work
partitions of your hard drive to
avoid any mishaps. The down side
is that you cannot change or save
any files to the drive while it is
locked
If the kids have any games that
save high scores, or educational
software that keeps a record of
their progress on disk then this
may create a problem. If they are
just playing games from diskette
then all should be fine.
You could perhaps show the
two older ones how to lock and
unlock the hard drive and make
sure they don't show the youngest.
To do this you need to open a
Shell window or use the pulldown
menu and highlight "Execute
Command". Type in "lock work:
on" to lock your work partition.
When you want to unlock it, type
in "lock work: off".
You will probably want to do
the same with your Workbench
partition, so the command would
be "lock workbench: on" or altern-
atively "lock sys: on" and "lock
sys: off' to turn it off again.
CHALLENGE CORNER
Dear Helpline, I recently read
a UK computer magazine and
came across a letter that one of its
readers wrote saying that he fitted
a switch on his CDTV player
which turned off the CDROM
chips, allowing him to play all
Amiga software. With the chips
on, some Amiga games won't
work.
I was wondering if you or any
of your readers knew how this
could be done, as I would like to
attach one to my CDTV player.
Also do you know of emulators
that allow IBM CD-ROM disks to
be played on the CDTV? I've seen
one called "Amiga CD ROM
KITS", which supports MAC and
IBM CD-ROM Discs. Would this
emulator fit on the CDTV player?
Keep up the good work with the
mag.
S. Robertson, Budgewoi NSW
mu
srawr
WDK)
. CBM A2320 DISPLAY ENHANCERS
BRAND NEW AS SHIPPED, SUITA2000
NOT $379 ONLY $200 PH: (02) 411-2108
AMIGA Review
37
I It seems not a day goes by
without someone discussing the
concept of an Information Super
Highway. A global computer
system which carries information
and conversations, holds confer-
ences, stores data and brings peo-
ple together for all around the
world.
What few people realise
however is that access to such
giobal computer systems is
available right now. This article is
the first in a series on CompuServe
- one of the worlds largest
computer networks.
This month we will look at
what CompuServe has to offer,
find at how much it costs and
discuss why you should become a
user. Over the coming months we
will delve deeper into the world of
CompuServe, talk to some of the
people who use it and explore
some of the many ways
CompuServe can make your life
more interesting.
So what is CompuServe?
Put simply - CompuServe is
the world's most comprehensive
online information and communi-
cations service.
CompuServe's over 1.8 million
users connect to this system via
their telephone line, using a
computer and a modem.
In most cases this is a local
call, with connections now
available in all Australian
mainland capital cities except
Darwin and in many other
countries around the world. Com-
puServe is continually expanding,
with plans under way for addition-
al sites and increased speeds
throughout Australia.
CompuServe Mail
At its simplest level
CompuServe can be thought of as
a postal service. When a new user
joins CompuServe they are given a
unique ID and a Mail Box. By
using Mail - CompuServe's
internal postal system - users can
leave messages, letters or even
whole computer files in your mail
box.
When you connect to
CompuServe, any mail you have
received can be read or downloaded
to your computer.
This type of mail box system is
not unique, as other networks
including Internet and Fidonet
offer similar facilities. Where
CompuServe differs from these
systems is that CompuServe Mail
is delivered imediately. Messages
sent by Internet mail take up to
two days to be delivered, while
Fidonet mail can take four days or
longer.
In addition CompuServe users
are not limited to sending mail to
computers. For a small fee you can
also send messages to fax
machines, Telex systems and in a
last resort, even to a postal
address.
Surprisingly, this last option
has some interesting uses for us
Australians. A letter posted in
Australia will take up to 2 weeks
to be delivered to a person in the
US. By using CompuServe, the
same letter can be delivered in less
than a week.
The CompuServe World
Waiting beyond Mail is
CompuServe's world. This world
is divided up into over 700
separate areas or forums, each
related to a specific topic or
interest. Over half of these forums
are computer related with most of
the major hardware and software
suppliers operating forums devoted
to then products. Many of these
forums offer online support and
product updates. Other forums are
dedicated to professional users,
covering topics as diverse as broad-
cast television [GO BFFORUM],
small businesses [GO USEN] and
legal issues [GO LAWSIG].
Other users are also well
catered for through more general
forums such as gardening [GO
GARDENING] and local aus-
tralian business [GO PACVEN-
DORJ, or which let you catch up
on the latest music gossip [GO
ROCK].
The information contained in
CompuServe's forums can be
divided into three main categories:
Messages
Most forums contain a number
of areas where members can
discuss items related to the
forum's topic. Message areas
operate in a similar way to
CompuServe Mail, the difference
being that the messages are sent to
the forum message area instead of
to a user's mail box.
All users who join a forum
may read these messages and are
actively encouraged to become
involved in the discussions by
replying to the messages - offering
their own comments and opinions.
File Libraries
Many of the forums on
CompuServe contain libraries of
files which may be downloaded by
users. The contents of the files in
these libraries are many and
varied. Some contain programs,
while others contain pictures or
maybe short stories and even the
occasional job offer. The list is
almost endless.
38
AMIGA Review
COMMUNICATIONS
Conferences
A number of forums stage
Tegular conferences online. At
these gatherings, guests are invited
to participate in a real time
discussion with forum members.
Forums such as the Amiga
User Forum [GO AMIGAUSER]
regularly invite software developers
and other bigwigs to these
interactive discussions.
ONLINE Shopping Mall
CompuServe also provides
users with a number of special
services. The most notable of these
is the shopping mall. This is one of
the world's largest online
computer shopper services.
At the mall users can purchase
clothes, computers and even
overseas holidays. Not all of the
suppliers deliver to Australia, but
then again not many Australians
are in the market for a left hand
drive Pontiac Firebird.
Real benefits can be found
when looking for hard to find
products such as books and
software or when sending gifts to
friends, relatives or colleagues in
the US.
Databases
CompuServe also provides
access to over 2000 services
containing information on every
topic imaginable.
Through services such as
IOUEST, which alone can access
over 860 databases, a user can
request information by topic, date
and special keywords. IQUEST
searches its databases for all
references and then gives the user
the opportunity to view the
information online or download it
for future reference.
CompuServe Pacific
Australian users are well
catered for as well. [GO
PACFORUM] offers a place where
Australians and a growing number
of overseas users can join in a
number of uniquely Australian
discussions. Where else would you
find a regular discussion about the
drinks preferred by females in
Australian bars?
This forum is operated by
CompuServe Pacific - the
company which, through its parent
Fujitsu Australia, owns the
distribution rights for CompuServe
in the Pacific area.
FALNET
For many years, Australians
using CompuServe were forced to
make expensive ISD phone calls to
the US. Ail this changed in the
early 1990's when Fujitsu
Australia licensed the rights to
distribute CompuServe over the
Fujitsu Australia Limited Network
commonly known as FALNET. It
is FALNET which most
Australians now use to connect to
CompuServe.
Internet
In recent months, another
method of local connection to
CompuServe has appeared on the
scene. People who have a Internet
account can now' "Telnet" to
'CompuServe.com' and connect
directly.
This has some advantages and
disadvantages. The cost of
connecting to CompuServe can be
reduced, but this is often at the ex-
pense of performance, depending
on the activity on Internet.
This lack of speed unfortunately
makes connecting via Internet an
unworkable proposition for most
people.
Membership
There is no joining fee for
CompuServe, In fact, if you phone
CompuServe on 008 025 240
during business hours they will
mail you a booklet containing a
User ID and free usage credit
worth S20.
The first time you use this User
ID you will be asked to complete
some details about yourself. This
includes your full name and
address and some credit card
billing details.
Doing this provides instant
access to CompuServe without the
need to fill out application forms
or having to wait weeks for your
membership to arrive.
Alternatively, credit worthy
individuals can apply for a
monthly invoice.
Charges
CompuServe users are charged
a monthly service and membership
fee of $14. In return you receive a
monthly CompuServe Magazine
and a special quarterly
CompuServe Pacific Magazine,
and it allows you to send around
60 CompuServe Mail messages at
specially reduced rates. As an
incentive to new users, the
monthly membership fee is waived
for the first month.
In addition to the service fee,
users are charged for the amount
of time they spend connected to
CompuServe.
This charge varies depending
on the time of day, the speed your
modem connects at and the
services you choose to use. The
charges are broken down into three
general categories - Basic
Services, Extended Services and
Premium Services.
Basic Services
Services in this group include
CompuServe Mail, The Electronic
Mall, News, Weather, Sport, most
games and the GrolieTS
Encyclopedia,
Extended Services
Connection to all other forums
and Services is charged at the
AMIGA Review
39
Extended Services rate. See the
table on page 64 for a breakdown
of these charges.
Premium Services
Some special Extended Services
have extra fees associated with their
use. In most cases this amounts to
a fee for each request made to the
Service. Currently access to US
stockbrokers and requests for
database searches attract this type
of additional fee.
Getting Connected
To connect to CompuServe,
once you receive your User ID in
the mail, you will need a 2400 bps
modem. Most modems on the
market today are capable of
running at 2400 bps. In addition
users in the eastern states have the
option of connecting using faster
9600 bps modems as well.
The only other requirement is
some terminal software for your
computer. Just about any
communications program can be
used to connect to CompuServe, but
to get the most out of the system
Amiga owners should consider
using Autopilot - a program
specially written for CompuServe.
Wrap Up
CompuServe is an enormous
system with something to offer to
every user. Yes, it does cost more
than a local BBS system to use,
. . . continued on page 64
(We promise never to do this again!)
m^m
;;;[
■^-i—f Fofwi &u»iT>^^5>**!p.^P +ff l&*a.ft^'*t e-i* s -Aprs-
■ '| tt«* fintflw User** L*..Jt flrtisf- HftJrtisMr R^tflo
'■ J' "
;£***r.^"^;i
■_J Bet 1t?n>p jwf'n
^* k .
Bet. B(l j
ntgrrne*.., .1 tar
Flying on
AUTOPILOT
The best way to make the most of
CompuServe is to do a large
amount of your work off-line.. To
do this you need a special piece of
software called a CompuServe
Navigator.
Navigator programs allow you
to automate the connection pro-
cess. They can log on, send and re-
trieve mail, join forums and
download files all without any out-
side intervention.
The advantage is that they can
do this much faster than you. This
can add up to large savings in
connection costs, since the Navi-
gator only connects to Com-
puServe for as long as it needs to.
The CompuServe Navigator for
the AMIGA is called AUTOPI-
LOT.
To run AUTOPILOT on your
AMIGA you require Workbench
2.04, at least 2 meg of memory
and Hard disk. Technically you
could run AUTOPILOT from a
floppy disk however this is not
recommended.
Using , AUTOPILOT with
CompuServe is simplicity in itself.
Before connecting you tell AU-
TOPILOT what forums you want
to Join, which messages to read,
what files you wish to download
and enter any mail messages you
wish to send.
When you hit the GO ON-
LINE button AUTOPILOT will
connect to CompuServe automati-
cally, perform all the actions you
have requested and log itself off.
You can then read the messages
which AUTOPILOT has retrieved,
enter replies and start new discus-
sion topics.
As an added bonus, because of
the AMIGA'S powerful multi-
tasking capabilities you can even
read and write messages in one fo-
rum while AUTOPILOT is re-
trieving messages or down-loading
a file from another forum. AU-
TOPILOT is a shareware program
which is available for download
from Library 9 in the Amiga Ven-
dor [GO AMIGAVEND] forum.
The shareware demonstration
version of AUTOPILOT allows
you to JOIN all of the Amiga fo-
rum's and send and receive Com-
puServe Mail.
The Registered version of AU-
TOPILOT which allows you to
join CompuServe's other forums
can be obtained by registering
AUTOPILOT online and paying
agreeing to pay $69.95 US . The
registration fee is billed to you
CompuServe Account.
Watch for a full review of AU-
TOPILOT next month.
40
AMIGA Review
INTRODUCE YOUR AMIGA® TO GVP'S G-FORCE 040 AND
THE SKY'S THE LIMIT!
40MHz
GET MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE FROM YOUR A4000 OR A3000 WITH GVP!
Using an MC68040, the fastest and
most powerful Motorola processor
available today for the Amiga,
means that you get unmatched
power and performance from your
Amiga 4000 or 3000 with the GVP
G-Force 040.
Rendering and processing times
decrease, day long projects finish in
a few hours, and you become more
productive.
► The optional RAM Kit adds up to
96MB of additional FAST RAM, for
a total of 128MB!
► The optional SCSI Kit adds a high-
speed, DMA SCSI-II-FAST host
adaptor for adding massive high-
speed storage for all your audio,
video, and data retrieval needs.
FEATURES
GVP
G-FwceMO
Warp
Engine
Bfcallbur
FastLane
A4091
0KB3128
40MHz Version
•
•
NO
—
—
—
Expandable to 128MB
•
•
•
•
NO
•
SCSI-II-FAST Hard Disk Controller
• !
•
NO
•
•
NO
Use any combination of 4MB and 16MB SIMMs
•
i/
NO
NO
NO
•
Onboard Memory Burst Mode Support
•
•
NO
-
-
-
Amiga Motherboard Memory Burst Mode Support
•
NO
NO
-
-
-
Avoids using a valuable Zorro-lll Slot
•
•
•
NO
NO
NO
Memory Speed much faster than Amiga RAM
•
•
•
NO
NO
NO
Single Products works In an Amiga 4000/030
•
•
NO
•
•
•
Single Products works in an Amiga 3000 & 400B
•
NO
NO
•
•
•
Integrated Expansion Slot for Future Modules
•
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
'Using A4000 G-Force 040 RAM Kit. Accelerator alone
— indicates that feature Is not applicable.
supports up
to 32MB.
•Using A4000 G-Force O40 SCSI Kit.
SGVP
GREAT VALLEY PRODUCTS, INC.
657 CLARK AVENUE KING OF PRUSSIA, PA 19460 • USA
PHONE 610«354«9495 • FAX 610-337-9922
A4QQ0 G-Force 040, RAM Kit, and SCSI Kit are trademarks of Great Valley Products, Inc. Amiga, A400O and A3000 ire registered trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
MC68040 is a trademark ol Motorola, Inc. All other trademarks are held oy ttieir respective companies.
ation
Networking
By Andrew Farrell
I If your office, home or school
has more than one computer,
joining them together to form a
network could save you time and
money.
Networking was once the
domain of seasoned technocrats,
who rendered their services to
hopelessly indebted companies for
exorbitant fees. Today, the idea of
sharing programs, peripherals, and
files among several machines is
something anyone with a
reasonable working knowledge of
Workbench could undertake.
What's possible?
Building a network of people
and computers offers numerous
benefits. You will save money by
not having to double up on
printers, or modems. Rarefy used
software can be installed on one
computer, but run on any of the
connected machines.
Files that need to be shared
between several users can be
passed around without resorting to
floppy disks, and there's even the
opportunity to have information on
a database maintained by several
people simultaneously.
A network, or LAN (Local
Area Network), will require
occasional maintenance by some-
one prepared to learn the basics. If
that someone is likely to be you,
be prepared to digest a large
amount of new terminology.
Networking, although easier
and cheaper than it has ever been,
still has the occasional quirk or
two. The complexity of installation
will vary, depending on what other
hardware you have installed, how
many people and computers you
want to involve, and the amount of
control you want over who has
access to what.
What's best?
In a smaller office, the best
type of network is a peer to peer
system. This means the resources
on each computer can be made
available to all. There's no need to
dish out megabucks on gigabytes
of hard disk space.
The alternative is a
client/server network - one
machine shares its resources with
all the others. The server is
dedicated to the job, so you can't
use it for anything else. Normally
it's difficult for a small office to
justify turning one machine into
the server. Client/server networks
tend to be more complex, but more
robust. They're also more ex-
pensive.
Understanding the basics
A network consists of some
form of cable between each
computer, and software to make
talking between machines poss-
ible, as well as serving up the
resources of each Amiga.
This connection will have a
limit as to how much traffic it can
handle - this is often described as
the bandwidth. However, this term
is not the same as the network
speed.
For example a highway may
have the capacity to carry up to six
lanes of traffic, but the speed limit
could be set to 80 km/h. Likewise,
your typical network connected
using ethernet cable can handle 10
megabits of traffic per second, but
the speed of data moving from
computer to computer is typically
between 100K and 350K per
second depending on the speed of
the machines involved.
Add more users accessing lots
of files, and eventually the traffic
can become congested, dram-
42
AMIGA Review
-
; ;VI ,v,„-„
atically slowing things down.
Essentially what is happening is
that users are in a queue waiting to
get their turn at accessing a
particular file. In a small peer to
peer network of, say, four users,
this is unlikely to be a problem.
Part of the network software's
job is to sort out whether programs
wanting to use something shared
on the network are running on the
local machine or at a remote
computer, elsewhere on the
network. Requests from another
computer for a resource elsewhere
in the network must be sorted and
passed on.
It's all pretty complex stuff
behind the scenes - but most of
this techno-wizardy is hidden from
you. After installation, all you
have to worry about is managing
the users, files and resources - and
enjoying the benefits of not having
to leave your chair when you want
to use the printer connected to an
Amiga in another room - or to
fetch a file from your other
computerin a different room.
Building your net
There are several alternatives
to cabling up each computer.
Cheap network software exists that
will work with nothing more than
a serial cable between machines.
It's inexpensive, but it's also slow.
Mind you, Apple's Macintosh
Appletaik is little more than a
glorified serial network. For
sharing small text files, it's
perfectly acceptable.
The next step up is a parallel
connection. This is a more
complex cable, and with the
inherent limitation of a maximum
5m length between computers, it's
hardly worth the increase in speed
over serial (two or three times
quicker). For information on this
solution, see the article on
PARNET following this story.
The next step up involves
buying a network card. You could
m Start with
PARNET, down the
track you could
upgrade to envoy."
try ARCNET, which was very
popular because of its low price a
few years back, However, these
days it makes sense to go straight
to Ethernet - the standard way in
which most networks are built
today. Ethernet cards cost from
$75 to $150 and come in two main
flavours.
10base2 cards use coaxial
cable (a bit like aerial cable for
your television) with BNC plugs at
each end. These connect to a
T-piece which in turn plugs onto
the network card connector.
The connector on the card is
similar to what you'll find on the
back of a good VCR. BNC
connectors have a locking mech-
anism to hold the connection in
place, but otherwise are basically a
bigger, tougher version of yuor
basic RCA style plug found on the
back of any stereo for adding
components such as a CD player,
tape deck and so on.
lObaseT and 10base5 are other
forms of cabling and cards more
suited to larger networks - so you
don't have to worry about them.
Choosing an Ethernet Card
There are only a few Ethernet
cards available for the Amiga.
Your decision will not so much be
a matter of choice, but a question
of availability. We counted quite a
number of different manufacturers
who have shipped Amiga network
cards at some point, including
ASDG, Commodore, Hydranet
and of course RMF, who make the
Quicknet cards here in Australia.
Quicknet is the most available
solution is called Quicknet, and
includes software to get your
network up and running. However,
there are alternatives to the
standard Quicknet software thanks
to Commodore's SANA-II stan-
dard.
We'll be looking at Envoy,
which was originally developed to
work with SANA-II compatible
devices by Commodore, next
month.
The idea with this standard is
that any physical connection
between two machines which has a
SANA driver, can be used. In fact,
if you start with PARNET, down
the track you could upgrade to
Envoy, add some Ethernet cards,
but still keep using your old
PARNET connection!
Which Software?
There are several different
network packages, most of which
offer basic resource sharing. Using
an Amiga, where the various
things hanging off each computer
are described as devices, it's
actually fairly easy to come to
grips with the idea of managing
and accessing something not
directly connected to your ma-
chine.
The better systems provide
support for electronic mail
between people on the network.
Better security and management
tools, and an easier interface for
controlling user access to different
parts of the LAN are also
important.
The cheapest way to get started
is with PARNET or the earlier and
even slower serial version of the
same software. Once you move on
to the real thing, with Ethernet
cards, the number of options grow
to include Quicknet, Envoy,
TCP/IP or Novell Client software.
We'll be checking out a few of
these over coming issues, starting
with Envoy next month.
Q
AMIGA Review
43
Disk Magazine
Mail Order
&PD
TreePost ~ No stamp required
when sending orders! Free Number for
Contributors and Orders: 008 227 418
P O Box 759, Crows Nest 2065
Tel: (02)9593692 Fax: (02)9593525
New Price $59 only!!!!
for 6-issue subscription (1 year) to
the best disk-mag, incl. 4 PD disks or
Hints & Tips disk - MD40 OUT NOW
Also available:
♦ Outline and Type 1 Postscript fonts
♦ 5500 PD disks of all kinds
♦ Fish disks and ROMs ♦ Educational
software ♦ Clip art ♦ Theme packs
♦ Mail order at low prices, discounts
Call for a free Catalogue-disk now
Amiga
Computa Magic
44 Pascoe Vale Road Moonee Ponds VIC 3039
Phone (03) 326 0133 Fax (03) 370 8352
NEW • NEW • NEW • NEW • NEW • NEW
DKB 1240 - 68030EC40Mhz for A1 200 - $649
DKB 1240 + 4Mb RAM -$959
DKB 1240 + 33Mhz 68882 - $759
DKB 1240 + 4Mb RAM + 33Mhz 68882 - $1 059
TRUE SCSI option - coming soon - $289
Power High Density Drives - internal or ext. - Scall
Disk Expander software - call
DKB 1202 - with or without 68882 - new lower prices
MIGRAPH colour flat bed scanners, with colour kit
pro and OCR software
- MS1200 - MS2400 $ NEW LOWER PRICING
Colourburst Hand Scanner - $979
Golden Image RAM Expansion - A500/600/1 200
(PCMCIA) and A2000/.3000
Amiga Brush Pen back in stock • Axelen Mouse - $LOW
New products arrive daily - call use for details
We also stock PC products, optical mouse, CO-ROM drives,
sound cards, hand scanners, video cards and much more.
* Easy Ledgers H Its Coming Soon!
* VIDI-12 . . . 12-bit real-time from $449
•CD32 Morton Picture Module (MPEGj $CALL
*BRILLIANCE...It is Brilliant! $269
*Intro to A1200 Video voLlor voli $59
*GPFax: Incredible! $109
*CD32 Titles: Pinball Fantasies,
■"Morph, D-Generation, Trolls,
""Liberation, 1869, Whale's Voyage,
^Microcosm!, Zool, James Pond 2
^Genesis, Surf Ninja, Sensible Soccer
^SUTERMETHANEBROS, Nigel Mansell
*More Coming Soon ... All CDs $69
*MPEG Module is HERE! . $CALL
*CD32 New ! Movies HERE! n£g,
UMTECH ELECTRONICS
Pty. Ltd.
(02) 820 3555
-Est. 1978-
Shop: SB Tummul Place, St Andrews, k.S.W. 2566
Member of AUSTRALASIAN AMIGA DEVEL0PEFISASSOCIATI0N
9-5 Mon-Fri, 9-12 Sat, Fax: (02) 603 8685
Mail Orders: P.O. Box 150' MINT0. N.S.W. 2566
MOBILE: D18 466 928
m
CASH
COD
SCSi U CABLES YES!! . .$79.95
SERVICING THE
COMMODORE COMMUNITY
FOR 10 YEARS.
WE SERVICE WHAT WE
SELL TO YOU!
More latest Amiga goodies!
Wow! ... Final Writer ...$219
Final Copy II B ...SCALL
Printer Ribbons Black $14.95
pW_»l* r flrwIQW 1 '
is Here!
.... SCALL
FORA1200!
m££ AMIGA
^Genuine Unitech manufactured products
are also available from your friendly local
Amiga Computer Specialist Dealer.
Welcome back to good "old fashioned" courteous service!
CD32 BASIC UNIT SCALL
Teac A500 1 itterna I Drive $1 65,00
3,5" Exll Drive $175.00
3.5 Extl. Higti Density Drive SCALL
2.5" IDE Hard Drive SCALL
3,5" Hard Drive SCALL
1/2 meg A500 expan mem. $99.00
KAO B ulK 50s D S D D 3.5" Disks $65.00
Electronic Design PAL Genlock £535.00
G ol de n I m age H/Scan ne r $309.00
G. I. H. /Scanner with OCR S4B3.dc
Clockfor A1200 $59.00
Monitor Switeri Box fron (15 contfgs) FROM $99.00
A1 200 D ual d rive cabl e fro m $39.00
A600/A1200HD cable (SINGLE) S35.O0
Multisync /Amiga Adapter 1 5D $49.00
Multisync ll/Amlga Adapter 9D £45.00
Analog joystick adapter $28.00
Parnet cable + PD dish $36,00
SCART/Amrga 1084 cable S3S.O0
SC S I 25 to 25 600m m cable $29. 00
A1 200 to 3.5" H D extl mou nt Kit $59.00
Modem cable short 350 mm S25.O0
Printer cable 5 metres long S2B.O0
Printer extension cable (FROM) 332. CO
A1200 3.5" HD INTERNAL WT KIT C01210 $51.00
A1200- NO HARD DRIVE $CA_L!
MXmXii SCALLl
A40C-0/040 $CALL!
A1 200 + Acco urns Package SCALL!
A1200 Dual H. Driwe/Accounis ICALL
A4000 Tower SCALJ
A5000 Tower - Coming - Yes ! It's Coming SCALL!
Amiga disable ON/OFF Switch SCALLI
Kickflart 2.04 ROM JCALL
Kictatart 2.05 ROM SCALL
Super Denise $58.95
8375 Agnus 2Meg Aggy $77.90
Gary chip 5789 $27.50
Paula 8364 $72.40
CIA8520 336.90 Kickboard Plus (3 way) $69,95
Prl nter Pa pe r 2000 Sheets/Box $28.00
MIDI Interface $79.95
Introducing...
Migraph 24-bit Color
Flatbed Scanners
At last ! There is a choice
of scanners for the profes-
sional user. Introducing the
MS 1200 and 2400, two new
Amiga 24-bit color flatbed
scanners from Migraph.
Both scanners offer quick
installation, ease-of-use, and
superior quality scans. With
the Migraph MS 1200 and
2400 you can now produce
crisp, clear, vivid 24- bit
color images for all your
video projects, desktop pub-
lications, and presentations.
Full 24- bit color.
When 24-bit color and high
resolution are important to
your projects, the Migraph
MS series meets your needs.
24-bit technology provides
over 16.7 million colors for
precise, detailed images.
Using software interpolation,
up to 1200 or 2400 dots per
inch (dpi) resolution is possi-
ble, based on scanner model.
No-nonsense software.
ColorKit Pro is easy-to-use
yet professional software that
provides accurate, efficient
scanning. The same software
lets you quickly and easily
save your image in a variety
of standard file formats for
direct export to the Toaster
and other video, graphics,
and publishing applications.
Options
Increase your productivity
with options like the auto-
matic document feeder,
transparency device, and
Migraph OCR text reading
software.
With the Migraph MS 1200
and 2400 flatbed scanners,
capturing high-resolution
24 -bit color images has never
been easier. Or more fun.
For more information on
Migraph scanners, see your
local dealer or call Migraph
direct at (03) 326 0133.
kwt uwinrii!
Distributed by Comprepair
44 Pascoe Vale Road
Monee Ponds VIC 3039
Tel (03) 326 0133 • Fax (03) 370 8352
scanners offer
scanning reso-
lutions up to
2400 dpi (based
on- the model),
as well as
brightness,
contrast, and
gamma correc-
tion controls.
Use the handy
transparency
option to scan
35 mm slides
'and film, trans
parencies.
The optional
Automatic
Document
Feeder holds up
to 50 pages.
MS 1200 - $2,089.oo rrp
MS2400 - $2,569.00 RRP
Transparency option T.B.A.
Networking
with PARNET
^Trading up to a new Amiga - and keeping
the old machine, opens up some powerful options."
By Heiko Wynen
I Networks are usually associated
with data processing in large
corporations. However, as net-
working simply means making
more economical use of resources,
there is no reason why it couldn't
be useful in a domestic situation.
As with cars, many people
trade in their old computers when
they upgrade to a new model. In
the case of an Amiga 500, this
may take about two hundred
dollars off the price of a new 1200.
While it obviously dampens the
immediate effect on one's bank
account, most people will certainly
feel sad having to part with a
machine which has served them
faithfully for quite a while. Even
worse is the fact that they probably
only get back around one quarter
of what they paid.
For those who can afford to
buy a new machine outright, there
is a very interesting solution. Keep
the old 500 (or 2000, or whatever)
and connect it via a parallel or
serial link to the new unit. Then
run a special networking program
and you can do some amazing
things.
ParNet, for example, is one
popular system allowing budget
networking on the Amiga, and as
it's free, it can be obtained from a
PD library for a small outlay and
tested under real life conditions. In
addition, it works at quite accep-
table speeds as it makes use of the
computer's parallel port instead of
the much slower serial port
supported by its cousin SerNet and
similar programs. Parnel may only
offer basic networking functions,
but these should be sufficient for
many to justify keeping their old
machine.
Lots of Memory
One of the most useful
advantages of working simult-
aneously with two computers is
the overall memory available.
Although programs won't be able
to make direct use of both
computers' system memory, it's
no problem to configure one
machine chiefly as a large RAM
disk. Like other disk drives,
including hard drives, it can then
be accessed from the remote
machine. To put it another way:
Connecting a basic Amiga 500 and
1200 gives the operator the choice
of two floppy drives, one hard
disk, 2Mb chip memory and about
400k RAM disk. This example is
based on using the 1200 as the
active machine and the 500 as the
slave, which would normally make
the most sense.
However, if the 500 is still
running Workbench 1.2 or 1.3, it is
easy to reverse the setup and put
the 500 in control if an older
program refuses to cooperate with
the version 3.0 operating system of
the 1200.
Mounting RAD: on the remote
machine, instead of the normal
RAM disk, makes it possible to
reboot either or both computers
without losing the contents of the
solid state disk. The newest
versions of ParNet allow rebooting
either machine without affecting
the functionality of the other.
While access times to the
remote devices are not as short as
when addressing the native drives,
they are still quite acceptable. For
example, when initiating ADPro
from an A3000's own hard drive,
it took less than 3.5 seconds for
the interface to appear on screen.
This compares with almost 14
seconds when the same program
was run from an A1200's slower
hard disk via ParNet. This was still
46
AMIGA Review
bvlav
a second faster than the
performance of the A30QO's built
in floppy drive. Access to shorter
executable files and projects on the
remote hard drive was nearly
instantaneous though.
PC-Task users will be pleased
to find that it is possible to address
a hard drive file on the slave
computer and even run programs
from it. although some of the
larger MS-DOS applications have
a tendency to hang during loading,
probably because of the low
transfer speed. Even a few Amiga
programs complain at limes when
accessing the other machine, but
simply clicking Retry or Cancel
fixes the problem. As far as the
remote computer's floppy disk
drives are concerned. PC-Task
insists on sticking to the native
machine's devices.
Printer Problems
On the subject of flaws and
limitations, ParNet' s most critical
shortcoming is its blocking of the
parallel port for the printer device.
Even if you use a data switch to
select between a printer or the
special ParNct cable (see Pic)
while the machines arc running,
you can't quit the network link
once it is up and running. Only a
reset will let you use your printer
after running ParNet.
Apart from this unfortunate
restriction, 1 was surprised by how
stable ParNet is during everyday
use. If a program crashed one of
the machines, a simple reset and
double clicking on the ParNet icon
restored the network without
affecting any applications running
on the other machine. You have to
take care during during data
transfers, though. Despite its
multitasking capability, ParNet
seems to dislike a simultaneous,
rapid moving around of windows
on the Workbench or flicking
quickly through several screens.
The result is sometimes a frozen
computer and a data-losing reboot.
Conclusion
Despite a few flaws, budget
networking can make life that little
bit easier for the average Amiga
owner. It certainly warrants
keeping an old machine when
upgrading to a new model.
Being able to freely access
remote devices like the directories
on the controlling computer, either
on the Workbench or from within
applications, including file
managers, is both fun and pro-
ductive. Even a novice will have
few difficulties getting used to the
fact that the other machine
becomes drive NET: and its
devices appear as directories on
this new drive (eg. NET:Dffl/Pro-
jects/MyFile).
-- '.\ Hitutpk 5fe fait. rJlW Tf
■ -.Parte
aKI ■
m\
WM^
; fcWj
--protexir
jlenp enpty t] [- Cwuted Palette
BidispUf | IxKiite I Sel Reader SCfKff
As mentioned, there are a
number of PD and shareware
network solutions for the Amiga
which cover a wide range of
speeds and options. Taking
everything into account, and
excluding much more expensive
commercial offerings, ParNet
appears to be the superior system
for the home user as long as
printing isn't important. To obtain
the latest version of ParNet, or any
other networking program, simply
contact a PD library - see the
advertisements in this magazine. If
you don't feel up to making your
own cable, try Amadeus Com-
puters on (02) 652 2712 where you
can buy the complete ParNet
package for $59.
(2-9)
(12)
(11)
(13)
(18)
D7-D9
POUT
BUSY
SEL
RCK
IT — c
(18-22) GND
D7-D8
POUT
BUSY
SEL
flCK
GND (18-22)
PARALLEL PORT
While most serial networking programs can make use of a widely available null
modem cable, ParNet depends on its own custom wiring.
Potential users without any relevant experience may be better advised to pay a little
more and buy a ready made cable.
AMIGA Review
47
Amadeus
Computers
FREE CALL: 008 808 503
Sydney: (02) 652 2712
International: 612 652 2712
Fax: 02 652 1515
34 Tecorna Drive, Glenorie NSW 21 57
We've got the
range
i
Personal Paint 4
Paint and image processing
software on the cheap. Full AGA
support, import and
export to a variety of file types.
Fast and easy to use. „j , \ *
Personal Write - $49 ^^ a
Personal Fonts Maker AGA- $129
CiiJJ lor 31 E?iEE disk ssi&tasjite
Amiga SPECIALS
SOFTWARE
Adorage
$199
Amiback+ Tools
$99
Art Department Pro 2.5
$275
Bars and Pipes Pro 2
$399
Blitz Basic 2
$199
CanDo 2
$209
Clarissa
$199
Contact 2.1
$79
Deluxe Music 2
$149
Deluxe Paint AGA
$149
Devpac 3
$149
Deluxe Paint 4.1
$99
Directory Opus 4.1
$109
DirWork 2
$89
Disk Expander
$89
Distant Suns 5
$99
Final Copy II, Release 2
$139
Final Writer, Release 2
$219
Fontasia 300 Fonts
89
Hi-Speed Pascal
$199
Imagine 3
$699
Image FX 1.5
$449
Maxiplan 4
$79
Mavis Beacon Typing 2
£89
Montage
$399
Morph Plus
S299
Multiframe for AdPro
$145
PC-Task 2.0
$59
Personal Write
$49
Personal Fonts AGA
$129
PhotoWorx
$199
PowerCopy Pro 3.03A
$89
Professional Calc 2
$199
Professional Draw 3
$199
Quarterback 6.0
$89
Quarterback Tools
$119
SAS C++ V6.5
$399
Scala MM300
$449
Scala Home "Tiler
$139
Scenery Animator 4
$99
Studio Printer $119
Super-DJ 3 (NEW) $59
The Publisher $79
True Print 24 $99
Typesmith 2.02 $219
Video Director $199
Vista Pro 3 $99
Wordworth 2.0 $99
Wordworth 3.0B $199
X-Copy Pro $89
Education
Children's Software
New to Australia, the best
English programs for young
children.
Kid Pix $79
Mickey's ABC $59
Noddy's Big Adventure
$59
NEW: Money
Matters
S129.00
(new version -
was Home
Accounts)
Home and small office
accounting made easy.
Successor to Home
Accounts. Requires
WB 2 and above.
Home Accounts 2
(ideal for WB 1.3)
Limited quantities -
$129.
Amiga 1200 - 40Mb Hard Drive, $999
Commodore 1084S ex-demo monitors
Amiga 4000 '030 and '040
CALL for latest info
$299
GVP
A4000 GVP Products
4008 SCSI Controller
and RAM
$349
A4000/030
33Mhz Co-Pro
$199
A3000/4000 040
40MhzAcc
$2,799
(040 Owners trade in
/our CPU)
A1 200 GVP Products
A1230 40Mhz
030 with 4MB
$999
40MHz Co-Pro
$299
A1230 50Mhz030
with 4MB
$1349
50Mhz Co-Pro
$399
4MB GVP 60NS 72
Pin RAM
$399
SCSI Kit
$199
CD-32 - Yes, we now
handle CD32 games
and Video CD Movies
for CD32 with FMV.
CALL US.
GVP Video/Display/
Sound Products
TBCPIus $1349
G-Lock $699
EGS Spectrum
with 2MB $999
DSS8-PLUS $189
r* t "- 1 , Delivery • Call Line • Disk Catalogue
Hundreds of Amiga Products • 30 Day Money Back Guarantiee
We Accept BankCard, Visa, MasterCard and AMEX. Cheque,
Money Order, Direct Deposit or COD • Lay-By Available
■
A600/1200 Hard Drives
120MB Drives $499
200MB Drives $649
40MB Drives $200
(when available)
Trade in your old drive for a new
larger drive
RAM
A500 1/2MB RAM $79
A600 1MB RAM $129
A600/1 200 PCMCIA RAM
1 MB (Battery Backup) $1 49
2MB $249
4MB $449
SIMM Modules for the A1 200/4000
Call for current pricing.
Accessories
External Floppy Drives $169
External Floppy HD Drives $299
Internal Versions also available.
Kickstart Selectors $49
A1 200 Clocks Now Only $39
MIDI Interface $69
3 Button Mouse $49
Optical Mouse $79
Keyboard Skins $39
Monitor Covers $35
BANX Boxes $29
Logic 3 Joysticks from $49
Monitor Speakers $49
Commodore parts available
NEC
CD-ROMs
ext. drives
CDR-25 $399
with software
ioup up
your
A1200
Microbotics A12Q0
Expansions Super
Specials - While stocks
fast
MBX1200z with Clock,
Co-Pro and 4MB RAM
now only $449.00!
MBX1230xawith50Mhz
030, SOMhz Co- Pro and
Clock $999.00!
(4MB RAM with this
Board only $250.00!)
■
Super high
speed
Modems
Need a very fast modem! Look no
further as we can now supply the
new look Austel approved
Maestro 28,800 and 14,400
Modems for your Amiga.
New compact casing which you
can position horizontally or
vertically to save desk
space. 2 Year warranty and
Australian designed and made.
Maestro 288 FME
Fax/Data
28,800 Baud rate for ultra high
speed data transmission with
14,400 Fax capability. -
$799.00
Maestro 144 FME
Fax/Data
Now at a new low price. This
is the new entry level modem
for Australian Data and Fax
communication. Anything
slower is outdated and costing
you larger telephone bills. All
Maestro Fax/Data- $499.00
Modems we supply
include GP Fax
software and a serial
cable.
Modem trade ins
welcome.
Introducing, the
perfect Amiga
monitor
Microvitec Multisync Monitor
At last Amiga owners can have an affordable
Multisync Monitor. In stock now and ready to
ship. Will display all A1 200/4000 modes, .28
Dot Pitch for outstanding picture sharpness
and a full 12 month Australian warranty.
Optional speakers for $49.00.
Monitor trade ins welcome.
Wordworth 3.0 power
Drag and drop editing, text effects, new interface -
Release B now available $199
The very best Amiga Word Processor on the market. Features galore. 2MB RAM
required and a hard drive is recommended. Upgrades available direct from
Amadeus for $1 00.00. Send in your original Disks with a cheque/money order or
credit card details. You will receive a complete package including manuals.
Wordworth 2 is still available for only $99.00. Ideal for WB 1 .3 owners.
Easyledgers II accounting
Australian design, easy to use, Workbench 2.x or higher required $399
Available end of July is this totally Australian product from the developers of GP
Fax. Totally intergrated accounting package. Inventory, Sales, Purchasing, Ledgers
and Job Costing. We use and recommend it for all small and not so small
businesses. Use your Amiga to its fullest extent.
Call to register for a demo version.
Rombo VIDI frame grabbers
Capture video on your Amiga - Australian warranty and support
Vidi Amiga 12 $249.00
The Number One Amiga digitiser. Capture images from any still video source.
Vidi Amiga 1 2 RT $449.00
The new standard in Amiga digitising. Capture images in real time from a
CamCorder or video player.
Vidi Amiga 24 RT $649.00
For the serious home user or professional. 24 Bit quality at an affordable price
MegaMix Master $99.00
Quality sound sampler at an affordable price.
Authorised Distributor for:
Microvitec, ROMBO, Cloanto and Digita
Products - Dealer Enquires Welcome
I It's finally Fish time again. Fred
Fish has decided to make the
ending of his floppy disk PD and
shareware distributions neater by
releasing the last 50 disks in two
instalments of 25, instead of his
usual bursts of 20. This, along
with Fred's extra workload getting
the CD-ROM deal happening,
explains the extra delay. In any
case, I've got Fish disks to 975,
and they're a good batch. Without
further ado. the highlights!
Program Complexity
* Ditch digger
** Office worker
*** Brain surgeon
**** Computer journalist
Disk 951
IconMiser**
This intercepts attempts by
programs to create icons, and
substitutes images or icons you
prefer in their place. It doesn't stop
programs making icons at all,
though. It's got a dead simple
interface and works with
Workbench 1.2 or above.
Disk 952
MachV **
Mach, by Brian Moats, is one
of the golden oldies of the Amiga
e very thing- utility world; the first
version came out way back on disk
130! It's grown a bit since;
Release 5.0, version 37,5 lets you
record keystrokes and mouse
events, manipulate screens and
windows, pop up a shell, view the
clipboard, blank the screen and
much more. This release has a
complete ARexx interface, so you
can execute ARexx programs and
functions from hotkeys and store
results in environment variables.
The optional title bar clock is an
AppWindow - you can drop an
icon in the clock and its name is
set in a variable for use in macros.
The documentation has been
rewritten and includes two indices.
This unregistered version pops
up an annoying timed "welcome"
window and can only record 25
macros, but otherwise is fully
functional.
UUArc ***
I last mentioned UUEncoding
five months ago; it's how you turn
a binary file like a program into
text characters, for sending it to
somebody on an electronic mail
network. UUArc is a UU archiver
and extractor, but it takes standard
basic archiver arguments (-1, -t, -a,
-x, -d) instead of doing the usual
command source destination thing.
What use is this? Well, it lets
you do UUEncoding direct from
GUIArc, a nice little Intuition
front end for various arch i vers that
was most recently distributed on
Fish 933. Personally I think
anyone who can't drive an
archiver from the Shell should
leave such work to the real men,
but if you're a big wussy girl's
blouse yet still need to do
UUEncoding this could be for you.
Disk 953
AmigaToNTSC **
AmigaToNTSC patches
graphics. library so it will think
you have an NTSC Amiga, so
everything will open NTSC
screens that have fewer lines but a
higher refresh rate - less
resolution, but also less flicker.
AmigaToPAL patches you back to
the standard PAL mode. It woTks
on WOrkbench 2 and 3 machines,
and handles all DoublePAL and
DoubleNTSC modes.
AppCon **
This clever little program turns
your Shell window into an
AppWindow, and lets you drop
your icons in this window. Then,
the name and path of the icon are
inserted into the current command
line exactly as if you typed them
with your keyboard, but slightly
faster!
On the down side, AppCon 's
not exactly bulletproof. It hangs if
you use it with CShell, and I
managed to turn it into a cabbage
in ordinary use. But check it out
by all means; see if it works for
you.
ByteFitter***
This freeware program is a
simple file filter, which lets you
you screen out specified bytes
from any file, so you are able to
extract the text from a binary file,
for example. You can't replace the
filtered bytes with anything,
though. You 'U know if you need it,
;CEl
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|Worfcbe»t.;> j f »») .£psjp- _
J Sg tect Barred f Feint. Hacfas 1 Help!
flfepend 1 flags f fldd ftacpo I &{ fty Nffltt eJ
Capy f : ' .'■ 'foftt hacra t &c- Sp*- 1 I '
..,»."(!■, ) 8'uffef sin (Hi a : ~t ■
C t.osu Gadget
i ;
ICtos-e Saflg^
MIK_SENB_CLOSE-fi-
jW IW^SOH>„t UISC" It"
CHf» Fggturtfg t Etoiise. Fg-aturasS f . CXock r^aturgj j HXste.t laneou^ F taturgs j
MachV- The Multi-Utility that wouldn't die.
50
AMIGA Review
Disk 954
MFT***
Multi-Function Tool is a weeny
assembly program (just over Ik)
that can perform the functions of
the Rename, Delete, Makedir, Wait
and Filenote commands. It's useful
for disks where every byte counts
and you don't want a bunch of
bigger utilities taking
up room. The only caveat is
that you can't use pattern matching
with it. Whaddaya want for Ik?
Disk 955
Deluxe Galaga *
In the great tradition of taking
ancient arcade games and putting
knobs on, here's . Written by the
same guy that did the excellent
Deluxe Pacman, it takes the basic
alien formation idea and adds
plenty of cool power ups, tougher
aliens including extra-meaty
Bosses, shops and secret bits. An
example - remember the bad guys
who stole your ship, giving it back
if you shot them so you had double
fire? Well now you can use the
same tractor beam generator to
grab enemies when they come past
your face! Check it out - if you
like the classics you won't be
disappointed, (pic on next page.)
MuroloUtil ***
This is a collection of CLI
utilities by Felice Murolo. Button
is a little utility that opens a
requester with custom text.
C64Saver reads and decodes C64
basic programs and saves them in
a readable file. Calendar prints a
monthly calendar and some
information about the days.
CarLost causes DTR to drop on
the serial port. CDPlayer lets you
play a music CD on CDTV or
A570. FMBadFmt is an Intuition
based utility which formats bad
disks and makes them usable (with
less capacity), not unlike the old
BFormat utility. KickMaker is a
utility for A30OO users that lets
you create a new KickStarl disk.
SerTest opens a window and
shows the status of serial port
signals (is your modem really
connected?). Switch opens a little
centered window with custom text
and two buttons for choice. Most
of the programs require
Workbench 2.
PFS***
Professional Filing System is
another new filesystem, offering
improvements over Commodore's
QldFileSystem and two flavours of
FastFileSystem, at the cost of
being fairly incompatible. Like
DiskSpareDevice, which I
mentioned just last month, PFS
can be set up on any floppy drive,
and piggybacks the existing DFx:
device with a new PFx: device,
just like CrossDOS piggybacks
PCx:. Stick in a disk and format it
and you're away.
Unlike DIskSPareDevice, PFS
is closely enough related to OFS
and FFS that you can quick-format
an OFS or FFS disk into FFS. By
doing more thinking and less
grinding, PFS disks store about
10% more data (it works with both
double and high density disks, if
you're lucky enough to have a
high density drive), and are less
corruptible - it's harder to stuff up
a PFS disk by, for example,
popping it out during a write
operation. I checked the speed of a
PFS disk compare with a standard
FFS floppy, and struck the Cache
Effect - when DiskSpeed did its
file manipulation tests, the PFS
disk never even spun, waiting for
all the shenanigans to die down
before actually writing something.
Since the FFS disk dumbly
tried to get everything done before
moving on to the next bit, PFS
won by a factor of about 70, which
I must stress does not accurately
reflect real time performance. In
transfer speed, which does mean
something in the real world, the
PFS disk was almost twice as fast
on writes and a shade slower on
creates and reads.
If you like this sort of
tinkering, PFS is brilliant fun. And
it does keep your data a bit safer.
Disk 956
DDBase **
This is a simple freeware
database. It can handle up to 1500
records, up to 20 fields per record,
up to 10 user-defined gadgets, data
importing and exporting in ASCII
or Superbase format. It requires
Workbench 2.
FMsynth **
This is a program to create
sounds with FM synthesis. It has
six operators, a re a) time LFO and
a freely editable algorithm. The
FMsynth -it
won't turn
you Into
Ken Davis
overnight,
but if I were
you I'd be
grateful.
AMIGA Review
51
Deluxe Galaga - those danged aliens just never seem
to learn, do they?
sound can be played on the Amiga
keyboard (in mono ot four pan
polyphony) or on a MIDI
keyboard which is connected to
the Amiga. The sounds can be
saved in 1FF-8SVX (one or five
octave) or raw format. There's
even an AREXX port now.
There are 230 FM sounds
included, which vary from the dire
to the surprisingly good. None of
them are going to sound any better
than a $300 toy keyboard, but this
is a real synthesiser and lets you
learn aboul the basics of FM
synthesis, which is what's used by
most budget synthesiser chips
these days.
Disk 957
PARex ****
PARex is like a hyperthyroid
version of Byte Filter, above. It
allows you to process files, mostly
text files, and replace strings of
characters, strip text between two
strings, or invert the case of
strings. PARex supports normal
text searching, wildcard searching.
context remembering and word-
only searching. Using scripts lets
you use an unlimited number of
such replace commands. Each
replace command can be
individually controlled.
All ASCII codes can be used in
the search and replace strings, and
you can even insert entire files,
dates or times. Custom formatted
hexadecimal output is also
supported.
There are more than twenty
ready to use scripts included to do
things like converting files
between different computer
systems (the classic function for
these sorts of programs), stripping
comments from source files,
finding strings in files, converting
AmigaGuide files to normal text
files - even automatic version
updating of source files.
Easily accessible for the
beginner? Nope. Very powerful?
Yes. But not this version - the
evaluation version only does the
first 4096 bytes of any file.
Awwwww,
VChess *
Fully functional shareware
chess game completely written in
Amiga Oberon (well, I suppose
something had to be).
VChess features selectable
screen type - it can run right on the
workbench screen, and indeed is in
my screenshot, since I have to get
at least one picture of my
Workbench into every issue of
ACAR.
You can resize the board,
watch the computer play itself,
load and save games; load, save
and print the movelist, set time
limits, solve for mate (down with
newspaper chess puzzles!), change
the font, set up and rotate the
board, show the computer's
thinking and, of course, more.
Requires Workbench 2, and should
run even on low memory (512K)
machines if the opening library is
not used. I wasn't about to rip the
lid off my 9Mb machine to test
this. Sue me.
i.
1 .-£8
*■
■!
■
CLE
i i i i i i i
■
A
■11 1 I I— ' ■■III M l ' I ll
VChess - and my workbench!!!
Disk 958
Alert**
This small command displays
any text you feed it in an alert box;
red under Kickstart 1.x. yellow
under 2 and above. This sounds
fairly pointless, but it lets you send
users of your scripts an unmissable
message and also has considerable
value for practical jokes. Not that
I'm advocating you terrify
52
AMIGA Review
Saftwoto
someone by making a fake failure
with some really alarming text. Oh
no. Not me.
Disk 959
AmigaDlary**
AmigaDiary is a handy
workbench tool of the type that
currently abounds on office PC's.
It is a mouse driven diary that can
store all personal events and is the
perfect solution to all those
forgotten events, missed appoint-
ments and so on. It also looks
rather boring, so I didn't do a
screenshot.
Disk 960
Imperial *
This is basically a Shanghai
clone - pick matching Mahjong
tiles from a heap.
There are interesting
alternative layouts, you can make
your own, and every game is
solvable, unlike those in traditional
Shanghai which can well be
impossible.
PowerPlayer **
A very powerful, user friendly
and system friendly module player.
It can handle nearly all module
formats, can read PowerPacked
and XPK packed modules and
comes along with its own powerful
cruncher that uses the lh.library.
The interface is easy to use, and
there's an AK.exx port too,
Disk 962
EnvTool **
EnvTool is another critter that
intercepts projects' tooltypes and
redirects the file to a different
viewer, application or whatever.
This version does it by looking at
an environment variable that tells
it what program to use, with a
default setting if the variable isn't
there.
ToolAlias **
Another approach to the same
problem. This one reroutes
specific programs to other
programs, so you can set up lots of
different tool aliases.
Imperial - Yet Another Shanghai Game.
Touch **
I mentioned this five months
ago, and now it's been updated
from 1.0 to 1.2, Touch changes the
date and time stamp of all
specified files to the current date
and time, and also creates an
empty file if the specified file does
not exist. 1.2 is slightly bugfixed
and optimised, and warns if it
can't find a file to match a pattern
(so you know if it's spawning
byte files all over the place). Tiny,
but useful to some, like me.
Disk 963
BootPic **
BootPic shows nearly any IFF
picture while your system is
booting after a reset. It can also
play a MED music module.
Requires OS 2.0 or higher. This
update, 3.1, makes the program
work properly with WB2 and lets
those of us with hard drives (there
are one or two of us out there these
days) use BootPic properly.
Split! ***
A high-speed file splitter, for
transferring big files on floppies,
or just backing them up. Split!
splits a large file into several
smaller files (you can define the
size). It uses a 32k buffer, which in
English makes it go like the
clappers. You'll need to hit the
CLI to use it though. Poor baby.
Disk 964
Angie ***
I mentioned this Rolling
Stones-inspired commodity four
months ago, and it's back. Angie
(AN other Great Intuition
Enhancer..,) assigns macros that
can consist of dozens of Intuition
related actions, arbitrary DOS
commands and input event data to
an unlimited number of hotkeys.
Furthermore, these macros can be
executed via ARexx,
AMIGA Review
53
) a Fram Schwarr - Giflware
.t'ii'fffflousfc contra? aftbuttoi* moi^J^ftpf
t a^rra a* r'ararft ieffoutton rro»«j_to ?' e
f- i fet?jnrraraJ -SKifi r-r&psitt ft
WroErtKJ
V~t Hup?: on wsritofrori* hotkeys
V f Hunt- sat cfefauit psuEfc screen
_s£j. H®y screen -acfe-sto
_v£j Safes Actwe WihTaiii 's Pri
_jj£j Eijp Sil on startup
StaKeftme
1
m
Sm$ stelax
I
_J30
Sorest! steps
t
(to
Window ate|5*
1
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Qi priority
1
__Js4:
Angie - whaddaya know, another multi-utifity
Angie's capabilities include
auto window hunting, auto Active-
WinTask priority boosting, last-
active window remembering, auto
DefPubScreen definition, and, as
is traditional, lots more.
Disk 965
U Chess **
More powerful than VChess,
so enormous that many Amigas
can't even run it - yes, it's another
version of UChess! It plays a very
strong game, and you'd want it to
since you need WB2 and at least
4Mb of RAM to run it, with a
special version included for all
those 040 owners with 10Mb
spare. Uchess supports AGA, and
has a pile of features. Load, save,
edit board, autoplay, swap sides,
force move, undo, time limits,
hints, show thinking, and a
supervisor mode that will allow
two humans to play with the
computer keeping them in line.
If you want the source code for
UChess - which you don't need to
use it - it's on Fish 966,
Disk 968
Disklnfo ***
This replaces the AmigaDOS
'Info' command, but can additio-
nally give more extensive infor-
mation on the disk (volume)
and/or on the device in which the
disk is inserted. Disklnfo can tell
you the device driver, cylinder
range, number of cylinders,
number of surfaces, blocks per
track, block size, DOS reserved
blocks, maxtransfer, number and
memory type of buffers, inter-
leave, boot priority and boot-
blocks, which should be enough
for anyone.
For some unfathomable reason,
this exact same program is also on
Fish 971. Ah well; with 4465
individual entries in the library, I
suppose Fred's allowed to slip up
once.
Disk 969
DOSTrace ****
This is a SnoopDOS clone
commodity (yes kids, WB2) with a
lot more whistles and bells,
including session history and
tracing of a lot more functions. If
you need to see what your
filesystem's doing, in order to
diagnose those wonderful pro-
grams that fail without telling you
what they couldn't find or where
they were looking, this is for you -
and it can do quite a lot more, too.
Disk 970
NoNTSC **
Converts NTSC screens into
PAL screens. It links into the
OpenScreen routine and looks at
the height of every screen opened.
If it's 200 pixels, it is converted to
256 pixels. Simple and effective -
though it won't help if a program's
hard-coded to only use 200 pixels
and never puts anything in the rest
of the screen...
UUCode ***
More UUencoding/decodiiig
stuff. This set's designed to be
reliable and fast, and includes
68030 versions. Again, you know
if you need it.
Disk 972
Icons & Morelcons **
A load of four and eight colour
icons. All the same size, all clear
and easy to understand. Check 'em
out in the screenshot, which also
contains, that's right, glimpses of
my Workbench. Twice in one
issue. What a champ.
QuickFile**
QuickFile is a flexible, easy to
use shareware flat file database.
Files can be larger than available
RAM, but as much of the file as
possible is kept in RAM for fast
access. Features include; multiple
indexes that are automatically
maintained; character, date, integer
and floating point data types; up to
250 characters per field and 250
fields per record; form and list
style displays and reports;
unlimited number of views for
each file; fast sorting with multiple
sort keys; improved search
function; fields can be added,
changed, or deleted at any time;
flexible ascii export/import; flex-
ible multi-column label printing.
Runs on WB1.3 or later and
should be OK with 512K RAM.
RCON***
This replaces the standard
AmigaDOS 2 or 3 CON handler,
and gives all CON windows
(shells, in other words) many new
features including scrolling back
text which has disappeared,
54
AMIGA Review
Ife*i4jriw
enhanced copy & paste support,
window iconification, output
logging, window contents printing
and moie. This is a demo version,
which only runs for 30 minutes.
CHeck it out.
Disk 974
DDL1**
The Duniho and Duniho Life
Pattern Indicator (DDLI) is a
program that asks you questions in
order to determine your Life
Pattern, which sounds a bit New
Age but is actually founded in
quite valid psychological
reasoning. Whether it's good for
anything or measures anything
useful is another question, of
course.
The Life Patterns correspond to
the sixteen psychological types
measured by the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator (MBTI), and they
are represented by the same
abbreviations. By using
knowledge that Terence Duniho
has added to the study of Type,
this program also checks itself by
asking supplementary questions
about other preferences that
correlate with a person's type.
Incidentally, when Andrew
Farrell did the test it said he was
one sort of personality, but its
self -checking questions said
something quite different. It did
this when I tried the test as well,
and then it crashed. I'm not sure if
this is a good sign,
KingCON ***
Another replacement console
handler, which I last mentioned a
couple of months ago. It is 100%
compatible with the standard
handlers, but adds some VERY
useful features, such as filename
completion (TAB -expansion), a
review buffer, Intuition menus,
jump-scrolling for FAST output,
cursor positioning using the mouse
and (wait for it, wait for it...) more.
It requires WB2.
This version, 1.1, kills a
ail lection of bugs form 1.0, deals
with weird key maps, adds some
more editing functions, does quote
marks in filename completion,
automatically handles icon
dropping to insert filenames (just
like AppCon, above) and iconifies
windows. Among other things.
Pretty cool, and completely
uncrippled.
Disk 975
C LI Exchange **
I mentioned CXKiller three
months ago; it lets you quit
commodities from the shell. This
592 byte program does the job of
the whole Commodity Exchange.
The only difference is that
Exchange has a graphical user
interface, while CLIExchange has
been designed to be called from
CLI so it can be used within
scripts, menus, docks or hotkeys.
You need at least WB2 (or you're
not using commodities anyway).
ITF***
Amiga version of ITF4.01. ITF
stands for "Infocom Task Force", a
system for playing the INfocom
text adventure games, which are
built in a standard format that can
theoretically be played on any
computer.
There have been several ports
of Infocom interpreters to the
Amiga, but none of this program.
The interpreter supports vl, v2, v3
(Zorkl to Stationfall), v4 (Trinity,
Bureaucracy...) and v5 (Sherlock,
Beyond Zork...) games. This is
more than any other freely
distributable interpreter. With this
interpreter you can play ALL the
games in the LTOI2 package for
the IBM PC, by copying the
datafiles with CrossDOS or
similar, then just running this
interpreter. Requires WB2.
PCal***
This creates a very nice
looking Postscript calendar. By
default, PCal simply prints an
empty calendar. Its real power is in
its ability to place events in
appropriate days on the calendar,
thus allowing you to create
personalised calendars. This is
achieved through the use of a
"calendar.dat" file that has
extraordinary flexibility. Check
out the picture for a taste!
Next month there'll be another
companion disk set - I've got
34Mb of stuff in my downloads
directory so it should be a good
one! See you all then!
□
February 1994
1
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AMIGA Review
55
► After my short break, I'm back
into the swing of things and will
be appearing here on a regular
basis again. What have I been
working on during this time?
Well, a few things; one of
which, NT Reference, is a New
Testament keyword reference
program like many of the comm-
ercial offerings, but it's free. You
can download it from Midnight
Caller BBS or Amiga FDe Server,
otherwise, you can get it from any
decent PD library for no more than
$6,
I think by now, most people
who want to be are fairly advanced
at programming the Amiga. Ever
since CANDO appeared, people
without C or Assembler skills have
had a fair crack at programming,
and since the arrival of the more
powerful BASICS like AMOS,
BLITZ and F-BASIC, things have
become like the good old C64
days where everyone could
program at least something.
Therefore, I won't go into too
many super flash programming
techniques during the next few
months. Instead, I think it might be
fun to check out our current
programs, and take a look at ways
to present them to other users in a
more professional way. 1 covered
something similar to this a few
months ago with my tutorial on
building professional looking
interfaces for programs.
In the same flavour, I'd like to
concentrate on techniques like
loading styles (the way your
program or game multiloads in the
best way), disguising your
programs so they don't appear to
be written in BASIC, recom-
mended keyboard input and other
useful things that will make people
sit up and actually use your
program. How often have you
downloaded a utility only to find it
slow, clumsy and ugly? If its
functions are essential you may
keep it, but otherwise it goes
straight in the Workbench trashcan
(does anyone really use that
anymore? [Nobody ever did -
DR]).
More than a Mouse
Have you ever noticed how
AMOS programs have a mouse
speed equivalent to speed 2 on the
Workbench? Now, Intuition's
mouse can not, unfortunately, be
changed to affect the one in
AMOS. They are on completely
different systems and are a world
apart. This is a bad feature of how
AMOS currently works, and app-
arently, this may change.
Wouldn't it be good to be able
to change the mouse speed for
your own programs? If can be
done, but it's only a trick. It can be
useful, but the technique would
Restricted True
■Douse Area.
best be for games requiring a
pointer or demos and music disks.
The reason? For every true mouse
movement of 1 unit, we have
another fake pointer that must
move 2 units. Type in the code,
save it, run it, and see what I
mean:
'MouseAccel, Sausage 1616194
Screen Open 0,320, 256, 32 ,Lowres
Limit Mouse 128,42 To 278,162 :
Rem adjust 3rd figure for right
hand clipping
CisO
A$="A: Let X=XS(0,XM*4); Let
Y= YS(0, YM*4); Pause; Jump A; "
'Change above to multiples of 2
for speed.
Channel To Sprite 1
Amal 0Jl$
Amal On
Sprite 1,1,1,1 .' Hide
Do
If Mouse Key=l : Edit : End If
LetX=XSprite(T)
LetY=YSprite(l)
Loop
Fal-tB mouse
Position X2
For Query 1 pixel the True mouse is moued,
our Fake mouse moues 2 pixels. This technique
is not recommended for programs
where 1 pixel accuracy is needed.
56
AMIGA Review
Nice and short, eh? What's
better, it runs under interrupt so
you have a nice new fast mouse.
Also, if you read the sprite
coordinates as in the DO/LOOP
above, you can easily track where
your new pointer is and read X &
Y rather than X Screen(X Mouse)
and so on. So how does the routine
work? The illustration should
explain it fairly easily.
News
Current new extensions are:
CRAFT - fairly average type
extension. Not terribly over the
moon on this one yet,
MUSIC V2.6 - Getting better and
better.
LIME - Not yet released. This one
already contains some Intuition
support and may contain AGA.
Full report on all three plus more
next issue.
There is still no official AGA
or Intuition type extension
available. Two are rumoured for
both, one from the USA and one
from Germany. Europress have
dumped all plans for theirs.
The new "Click & Play" for the
IBM PC does not look to be an
AMOS clone any longer. This
product will be a creation product
with little or no programming
required, similar to CANDO or the
new Layout for the IBM PC. It
will allow you to create games for
the Microsoft Windows
environment. After its release
possibly later this year, we will see
support from Europress again.
Next Month
More techniques and news.
Remember, I can be contacted on
Amiga File Server for help,
suggestions or questions. Also, if
there's anything you want to see
here, your requests are being
taken.
□
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reasons why you
should subscribe.
( tick as many as you like )
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Get the picture? We're offering more to subscribers.
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AMIGA Review
57
I As good as the CanDo document
is, there is still the problem of text
disappearing to the right of the
document as the user types in,
which lacks the professional touch
of some text editors and word
processors.
Worry no more, as this month I
will be showing you how to be
able to get all your documents to
have a word wrap feature that
works correctly every time - I
think!
There is not a lot of code and it
can easily be installed for use in
any document, regardless of width.
All that is necessary is to set a
variable to tell the routine the
maximum character width for a
line. e.g. 78 characters.
The routine will handle all the
THE WORD WRAP ROUTINE
Let LineLength = 78 ; insert this at the start
of your program to set the width of document
WorkWi thDocument <"Your Document Name">
If LengthOfLine > LineLength and
TheColunfliNumber > LineLength
Do "Move It"
El self LengthOfLine > LineLength and
TheColumnNumber < LineLength + 1 Let c =
TheCo lumnNumber
Let 1 = TheLineNumber
MoveCursorTo STARTOF LIKE
MoveCursor RIGHT /LineLength - 1
Do "Movelt"
Loop
Let z = TheLineKumber
If z < LinesInDocument
Posit ionOnLine z + 1
Let t - TrimString (TheLine)
If t <> "" and t <> " H and t <> nothing
and TheLineNumber < LinesInDocument
MoveCursorTo STARTOF LINE
Type " "
m
KidsWr
introd
cone ep
proces
fraph i
he na
proces
Th
(1
(2
<3
(4
*ec h
lie
t of
s ing
c in
in f
sor .
ese
> Lo
has been designed to
young students to the
computerised word
. KidsWr ite en ploys a
terface to represent
unctions of a word
functions are;
ad ing a docunent
> Saving a document
> Editing a docunent
> Clearing a docunent
ite also uses the flniga's
ilttv to enable the
dsHr
f ac
Exanple of a LO-RES uordurapped docunent
word wrapping for you. There are
two routines altogether.
How it works
This routine is called every 10
jiffies (l/6th second on PAL
machines) by a timer that will be
created below.
It checks the current location of
the cursor, and if it exceeds the
specified line length, the line is
word wrapped by moving back to
the end of the last word and using
the SPLITLINE command to
move the rest of the line to the
start of the next line.
The lines below this line are
then moved up and wrapped
correctly. Although this routine
may seem complex, it works very
58
AMIGA Review
. >f(X4.1> AM0C.lt
OUTPUT ffl
LETT = T4T
EWT
5=^S?
PROGRAMMING
MoveCursorTo STARTOF LINE
touch to all your CanDo
documents by having them
Delete character , -1
wordwrap correctly.
MoveCursor LEFT
The code has been tested using
If TheCharacter = ■ "
lo-res, medium-res and high-res
Delete CHARACTER
documents. See you next month.
Endlf
If LengthOfLine > LineLength
MoveCursorTo STARTOF LINE
u
MoveCursor RIGHT , LineLength - 1
You've read
Do "Movelt"
Else
ExitLoop
the column -
Endlf
Else
now get the
Exi t Loop
Endlf
Else
book.
ExitLoop
Endlf
EndLoop
PositionOnLine 1
All the
MoveCursorTo STARTOF LINE ■
MoveCursor RIGHT ,c - 1
CanDo
Endlf
tutorials
in one book.
quickly and does a good job of Explanation
continually formatting any text j^ routine simply carries out
NOW
document correctly. me W oid wrap on the current line.
Note that the SPLITLINE
command is used to make sure the
available
THE MOVEIT ROUTINE text is moved correctly. Don't use
Call
the NEWLINE command, as this
MoveCursorTo ENDOF does not wra P a iine correctl >''
PREVIOUSWORD
RUSH
MoveCursor RIGHT THE TIMER OBJECT
SplitLine
Software
If TheCharacter = " " OBJECT NAME - "Wordwrap"
Delete CHARACTER INTERVAL RECURRING - set
on
EndJi JIFFIES to 10
MoveCursorTo ENDOF LINE
042 342107
Script
Do "Wordwrap"
to order.
That is all there is to it Now
you can add that professional
AMIGA Review 5
9
User report
Multimedia in
education
I Recently, I was fortunate enough
to be able to work with a local
school in creating a multimedia
application, Ron Shipp, the com-
puter coordinator at Lindsay Park
Public School in Wollongong,
asked for assistance in demonstrat-
ing how the Amiga could be used
to create a multimedia database.
The school is located in a quiet
area of Wollongong and has been
using Amigas in the classroom for
about four years. There is a
mixture of Amiga 500s, 600s and
1200s in the school. Ron is
currently in the process of selling
the older machines to upgrade to
the Amiga 1200 as he has found it
to be excellent for school use.
I had the pleasure to work with
Ron's class, 5S, when creating the
project, and would like to thank
them for their behaviour, attitude
and assistance. It was very
pleasing to see the students
showing such an interest and they
all seemed to learn a great deal
from the exercise. I would also
like to thank the school, and Ron
Shipp in particular, for the
assistance my wife and I were
given while working on the
project,
By Greg Abernethy
Multimedia, as I understand it
at the moment, is the use of
speech, video, animation, music
and sound effects among others, to
create an application. Examples
are Groliers Multimedia Ency-
clopaedia and Animals of San
Diego Zoo, two excellent titles on
CD-ROM for the PC.
Ron and I discussed the best
ways that the Amiga could be used
in this area, and decided to create a
class database that used digitised
speech and grabbed video images
as well as a simple animation to
demonstrate a multimedia applica-
tion to the class. Music and sound
effects would also be added at a
later date where necessary.
As I have had extensive
experience in using CanDo for
software development, 1 selected it
as the system for the database.
CanDo 2,51 is great for displaying
high resolution grabbed images
and playing sound files and music,
as well as having a very good
database creation system.
Building the software
I created a single database
entry page, (see illustration), and
added buttons to enable the user to
LINDSAY PAKE PUBLIC SCiKOL
THAMES STREET •WOL10M60KG_
hear a sample of speech from the
student currently displayed in the
database, and to view a picture of
the student. The user could cycle
through the database using the
NEXT or PREVIOUS buttons or
select a student from a scrolling
pop-up list.
It took about an hour to draw
the page in 256 colours using
Deluxe Paint AGA, I created a
simple colour cycling ball to
demonstrate simple animation. Ft
only required a couple of hours to
program the database, as I already
had all the database scripts set
aside from earlier applications. All
was in readiness for adding the
speech and digitised images.
I arranged with Ron to do two
half day sessions. On the first day
we would get the students to enter
their details in the database, and
then have their speech digitised.
On the second day we would use
the school video camera to digitise
an image of each student. As this
was my first attempt at this type of
project, I was unsure how long it
would take to carry out these
operations.
I decided to use Digital Sound
Studio 8+ to digitise the speech
samples, and VidiAmiga 12 to
grab the images of each student. I
have an Amiga 1200 with 6Mb of
RAM and thought that this should
be adequate.
Digitising the kids
My wife Kay and I arrived at
the school on the first morning and
I must admit 1 was a bit tense, as I
had persistent visions of my
computer or the equipment failing
badly. I had seen it happen in the
past to other people, and hoped my
nightmares would not come true.
Ron had his class, 5S, primed and
ready to go when I got there. It
only took a few minutes to set up
and we began work. Kay helped
the students to enter the database
details while I sampled the speech
60
AMIGA Review
.
of each student. I found it
necessary to move the microphone
about three metres from the Amiga
as I was getting feedback from
either the monitor or computer.
Amazingly, it only took a little
over an hour to get all the database
information and obtain all the
speech samples. The students
knew what they wanted to say and
had all the details for the database
ready. The Digital Sound Studio
package was very easy to use and
it took very little time to get a
sample. The quality of the samples
was quite good, and they played
back well from within the
database.
That evening, I checked the
database for typing and spelling
errors and tidied up the speech
samples.
The next morning when we
arrived at school Ron had all the
equipment ready for use. We
decided it would be best to have a
whiteboard as a backdrop, to give
the best contrast when grabbing
the video image.
It was very easy to grab an
image using Vidi Amiga 12RT, as
it grabs an image from the video
source in about l/25th of a second,
which was good as some of the
students had trouble keeping a
straight face. Once again, I was
amazed at the ease of use of the
software and that we were able to
digitise all the images in just over
an hour. The images were
displayed as 640x512 HAM and
the quality was very good.
I then showed the database to
the students and they suggested
that it would be betteT if the speech
sample could be played when the
digitised image of the student was
displayed. I agreed and was able to
make the changes to the program
while the students watched, which
also gave them an insight into
software development.
Because I had so much time
still available I created a simple
PBHSBPfffliriM PLfHBFMiBWiH ; FiffllinWffln I
1 Previous Stuctentl J_JgxHMjm£^ LiiksOJil^lLJ CSHOEjJB^
rolling the eyes animation using a
digitised image of one of the
students. The students thought this
was great and were interested in
doing another day creating
animations using Deluxe Paint.
That night I added the finishing
touches to the database, created a
title page and added a print option
for the digitised image. I will be
presenting the full program to the
school this week.
The Amiga and the software
and hardware I used performed
well and I could not fault the
quality of any of the speech or
images used in the program.
Equipment list
The equipment I used for
creating the application and its
cost are listed below.
■ Amiga 1200 with 6meg
RAM/40 meg HD, 1940 monitor -
$1900
• Digital Sound Studio 8+ -
$199 - microphone required,
available from Amadeus
Computers (02)6522712
• VidiAmiga 12 Real Time
Digitiser - $449, available from
Computa- Magic (03)3260133
* I used CanDo v2.51 for
creating the database. It is very
good for creating multimedia
applications. - available from
Desktop Utilities (06)2396619
« I used Deluxe Paint IV AGA
for designing the title and database
pages as well as shrinking a
full-screen image to quarter size
for display in the title page. It is
the best paint program I have seen
on any platform.
As you can see from the
costings above, a multimedia
creation system can be obtained
for a relatively low cost (under
$3000).
I examined the DOS and
Macintosh alternatives and it
seems that a much larger outlay is
required to duplicate what I
achieved on the Amiga. The
Amiga may lack finesse in certain
areas but is ideally suited for this
type of application.
If you would like more
information on this project or have
any questions, I can be contacted
at Rush Software on (042) 342107
or at home on (042) 617442.
a
AMIGA Review
61
> Have you ever needed to used a
random function in your Arexx
scripts or even your DOS scripts?
Have you noticed that the Arexx
function as shown in the
SystemSoftware manual, doesn't
produce very random numbers at
all? Or have you just been curious
how it is that a machine picks
numbers at random? Read on.
Random Ami?
The answer is no, not really. I
believe the problem lies in the
theory that it requires intelligence
to understand the concept of the
random. Now your Amiga
possesses very little in the way of
intelligence. It is unable to take a
range of numbers and 'pick one of
them without looking'. It cannot
even go along the lines of
assigning each number within the
range an equal chance of being
picked - that itself involves the
random again!
So we have a bit of a dilemma.
You should realise that the Amiga
is capable or at least gives the
impression that it is capable of
carrying out random functions.
Simply took at any card game, or
dice game. The same numbers
don't come up all the time. So
there must be a way right? Well,
yes and no.
Arexx has two 'Random'
number generating functions.
Random() and RandUO- RandUO
generates a number from between
and 1. While this may not seem
to be particularly useful, by
multiplying the result of the
function by a number of your
choice, you can get a huge range
of values for your 'random'
numbers.
For example, consider
multiplying the result of the
function by 10,000. This equation
will give an apparently random
number between and 10,000,
depending on what came out of the
RandUO function. Say we got
0.217. The equation we are using
would give us and result of 2170.
The other function, RandomO,
generates a random number
between specified maximum and
mirumum values. There is a
hardcoded limited on the range
supported by Random(), which is
and 999. If you need numbers
larger in range then I suggest you
use RandUO- Th& function
however should be apt for MOST
uses. We have discovered the
useage of both functions, lets have
a look at how they actually work
with some sample Arexx scripts.
For the examples, weil be
attempting to simulate the roll of a
die using RandomO-
side = random(l,6)
say 'The dice rolls a' side
Dice is our first attempt at
simulating the roll of a die, or
more to the point, the results of
rolling a die. The minimum value
for the RandomO function is 1, the
maximum is 6. The program
should pick a number between
those limits and then print out the
results.
Executing the script gives us a
message along these lines:
The dice rolls a three.
Ok, that worked pTetty good,
but what if we execute the script
again?
The dice rolls a three.
In fact, no matter how much
you run that program, the result is
going to be 3. Not much fun, and
not very random is it?
The reason that the number is
not changing with each execution
is because the 'seed' doesn't
change from one execution to
another.
Each time the script is
executed, the same seed is used to
intialize the state of the internal
random number generator, and
because the same seed is used, the
generator is initialized into the
same state each time.
It is possible to include a seed
as part of the RandomO function's
parameters.
In the RandomO function, the
seed goes after the maximum
number, so repeating the above
script with a seed of our own
included, we would get:
/* Seeded Dice */
Side = Random(l,6,13)
Say 'The dice rolls a 'Side
In this case, *I* picked a
random number for the seeder, 13,
Executing the script again this
time we get the following results:
The dice rolls a four.
Good so far, lets try it again:
The dice rolls a four.
The only thing that we have
achieved here is that we have
changed the seed from the default
seed to one that we chose. So the
initial change in the results
achieved from the script is
different (obviously) because the
random number generator is being
initialized into a different state.
But when we execute the script
again, it is again being initialized
into that same state, just as it was
before with the default seed.
What we need is a method of
making the seed change every
time the function is called!
Another function in Arexx
62
AMIGA Review
comes to the rescue, TimeO-
Time0 can be used to return the
time as set by the Amiga's internal
clock (if it has one). The function
has several options available to it
but the one that we are interested
in at the moment is the one that
returns the number of seconds that
have elapsed since midnight,
Time(seconds).
Hopefully, you will have an
idea of what I am aiming to do.
For those who haven't yet clicked
onto my plan, the value returned
by Time (seconds) changes every
second, because as every second
passes, quite literally, the number
of seconds that has elapsed since
midnight increases by Dne.
We can then insert this value
into the RandomQ function as the
seed, and yehaw, we have a seed
that is changing frequently!
Looking back at the Dice
program, we'll add the new
improvement and see if it works:
/* Timed Dice */
seeder = Time(seconds)
side = Random(l,6,seeder)
Say 'The dice rolls a' side
Executing the script we get a 5.
Executing it again this time we get
PROGRAMMING
a 3. Trying one more time, we get
a 2. Looks like we have done it
folks.
We've now just worked out
how to generate what are
commonly called pseudo-random
numbers, which are about as close
as your Amiga can come to purely
random numbers at the moment.
You will probably find that
most programs that appear to
generate random numbers have a
similar sort of approach at the core
of their code, it is a convenient
way to get around a very
inconvenient problem.
□
Australian Commodore & Amiga Review back issues still available
+ many more before June 1993 - Call for more info
June 19S3 Vol 10 No 6
• 3D Animation with Aladdin • Easy for beginners • The
Animation Workshop • How lo beat those Disk Swapping Blues
• Deluxe Paint Tutorial ■ Animating in (apparent) 3D
• Amos Column • Andy's Attic • Exploring WB2 • CanDo -
Your own Directory Utility - Part 2 • Education Column - Worid
Construction Set • Down the Opai Mine ■ Using the Alpha
Channel • C64 Column • Hot PO • Gamas - KGB, Fate -
Gates of Dawn, Darkseed, Civilisation, King's Quest Full
Solution Part 1
July 1993 Vol 10 No 7
• Real 3D 2 . G • Accelerators • Golden Gate • Microdeal
Clarity • Home Accounts 2 • DPaifil ■ Animation in 3D
• Education - Sack to Basics • Amos • CanDo • C64
• Andy's Attic • Hot PD • Games ■ Chaos Engine, Beavers,
Sleepwalker, Vikings, Solutions - SuperFrcg, Kings Quest Z
August 1993 Vol 10 No 8
• Show Report • Vidi Amiga 12 • Final Copy II • Sound
digitising • Intro to Desktop Video • Hypercache Professional
• Education - Aust Graphics Arias • CanDO • D Paint Tutorial
• C64 Column • Amos Column • QpalPainfs Zap function
• Hot PD • Games - Hired Guns, Trolls, Graham Qooch World
Class Cricket Soiutlon - SuperFrog Part 2
September 1993 Vol 10Ho9
• Art Expression • Paint Program • 68060- the Next
Generation • Power Copy Professional • Quarterback Tools
Deluxe • CanDo 2.5 Upgrade • DPaint Tutorial • Hot PD
• C64 Column • Amos Column • CanDo • Education - Back
to Basics Fractions • Andy's Attic - How lo create a RAD drive
• Games - Creatures, Flashback, SuperFrag, BodyBiows, Dark-
Seed- Solution
October 1993 Vol 10 No 10
• DPaint A6A • PC Task MS- Dos emulation • Ami-Back
Tools vs Quarterback Tools Deluxe • Personal Paint • Hoi PD
• Blitz • Andy's Attic - Workbench Tools • DPaint Tutorial
• Education - Leam to play the Piano • CanDo - Make you r
own Calendar • C84 - Graphics Software • flames - Camptfs
Int Rugby, Reach for the Skies, Project X Revised Edition,
Syndicate, Street Fighter II, Dune I!
November 1993 Vol 10 No 11
• Brilliance • Hoopy Paint * Amiga on the Cheap • Video
Tutorial to A12G0 • CED 3.S • Frame Machine • Education ■
Personal Tutor • Blitz • DPaint • Hot PD - Latest Fish Disks -
• CanDo • Amos • C64 • Games - Pin ball Fantasies,
Desert Strike, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, KGB -
solution Part 1
December 1993 Vol 10 No 12
• Amiga CD32 - an in depth look • Affordable Tape Backup -
SCRAM plus Tamberg • Bernoulli Multidrive vs Syquest 105
■ EGS Specirum • Education • Hot P0 • Bite - more clever
functions • CS4 • CanDo - Foreign language iiie converter
• Games - Air Warrior, Two Player Games, 101 PD Games.
KGB - Solution part:2. CD32 Games Pinbail Fantasies, Oscar,
Diggers
January 1994 Vol 11 No 1
• Palmtop Computing - low price alternatives to Amiga portable
• Final Writer • What the Manual Doesn't Tell You • Deluxe
Music Z% Quieknet - peer-to-peer network • Understanding
Libraries • CanDo - Getting key input • Hot PD • Amos - New
extensions for AMOS Pro • Blitz - Zones of control •Andy's
Attic • C64 Bumper Tips • Games - ACAfi PD Games 2,
Mean Arenas, VoJoei, CD32 Quickshots (DiGeneraJion,
Whale's Voyage, Overkill)
February 1994 Von 1 No 2
• Understanding Genlocks • Final Writer • CoolCat - clipart
and animations • Advanced Amiga Analyzer • Upgrading from
a 6BOO0 to an A 1 200 • DPaint Tutorial • Education -
Math master II • Hoi PD • CartDo - Electronic Log Book
• Amos - Hacking AMOS Gfaphc Modes • Bliiz - Main loop for
a GUI ulitiiy • C64 • Art Gallery • Games - Ishar 2 -
Messengers of Doom, Frontier - Elite li, Donk, Soccer Kid, Bob's
Bad Day, Flashback - Solution Part 1
March 1994 Vol 11 No 3
• Image processing with Image F/X • A1 230 Turbo Pius board ]
• VIDI Amiga 12/24 - Capturing high quality images A GVP's
new time based corrector board • Scaia MM 300 Synchronous
Multimedia • Education - Search for Sanchez • Help fine
• DTP Column - Postscript • Hot PD - Fish on ROM • CanDo -
Make your own Typing Tutor • Blitz Basic - Data Security • C64
• Online Amiga • Camas - Body Blows Galactic, Zool2, Alien 3,
Lotus Trilogy, Flashback solution, Deep Force, The Patrician
April 1994 Vol 11 No 4
• Montage 24 - 24 bi! video titling ■ Warranties and your Rights
- Where do you stand • How to gat Broadcast - Sell your Amiga
graphics • Introduction to Internet - World's largest network
• Scenery Animator 4 - Virtual virtual reality # Upgrading Fat
Agnus • Education - Fun at Sideshow Alley • BfHz - Basic
Strings • CanDo - Working with Amiga Dos • OPainl Tutorial
• Hot P0 - New Fish, plus Mand2000 • HelpLine • Amas -
Interlaces without banks • Online - Games you can play on your
local BBS * C64 • Useful Pokes % Games - Assassin (Amiga
Games Pack), Cannon Fodder, Tornado, Stardust, Disposable
Hero. CM2 Games - Microcosm, FSy Harder
May 1994 Vol 11 No B
• Understanding Amiga Graphics - Computer images often
require a compromise between quality and lile size - we explain
how to achieve the best balance • Modems - An Introduction for
Beginners - A modem can bring all kinds of information to your
Amiga al very reasonable cost • Up and Running • Making your
modem work - Iroubfe shooting and a checklist at what lo do
• Persona! Write - Super cheap word processing with interesting
fealures • Map Studio Vol 1 - JPEG graphics • DPaint Tute -
The DPaint beginners' friend • Deluxe Paint Tutorial - The sky's
not the limit • Education - Crossword Wizard • Hot PD - Utilities
exiract more from Workbench • Blitz Basic- Squeezing your
data • Desktop Publishing - Creating reversed te*i • Help Line •
Problems salved • Online AMIGA! - Start your own MAX's BBS
• C64 Column - CMD picks up GEOS • Games -The Settlers,
Second Samurai, Kingmaker- Quest for the Crown, C032 Games
■ Trolls, Alien Bread/Quak, Project X.
Storm Front Studios
PO BOX 288 Gladesviile 21 1 1
Ph (02) 879 7455 • Fax (02) 81 6 471 4
$3.50 each inc. postage
AMIGA Review
63
. . . from page 40
but then again no BBS offers the
services provided by CompuServe.
By using tools such as Autopilot
and by setting yourself a budget,
you can make CompuServe work
for you.
The possibilities are endless.
Students can do all their research
without ever leaving their home,
investors can follow the stock
market and your Amiga problems
can be solved online with the
assistance of the many Amiga
users already connected,
CompuServe pays your first
month's service fee for you and
gives you a $20 connect credit into
the deal.
This gives you the opportunity
to have a look around and explore
some of CompuServe's many
services.
If you then feel that
CompuServe is not for you, you
can cancel your membership.
CompuServe Charges
basic
2400 baud
Standard 0.25 cents / Mirs
AFTER DARK 0.15 cents /Mirs
9600 baud
Standard 0.25 cents / Min
AFTER DARK 0.1 5 cents / Min
extended
0.37 cents / Min
0.27 cents / Min
0.49 cents /Min
0.39 cents / Min
NOTES: Basic services - Include CompuServe's 70 most used
services, AAP News and CompuServe Mail
Extended services - Include all forums and Services not covered
by Basic Services. Some extended services attract additional
charges - ie Database Searches - Stock Brokers
Standard rate or daytime rate - Sam to 7pm
AFTER DARK economy rate - 7pm to Sam
Coming up Next . . .
Next month in the new Amiga
Review CompuServe column, we
will review Autopilot in detail and
begin to explore some the
fascinating features available on
CompuServe.
Finally, if any users have any
interesting stories about the way
they use CompuServe, mail me on
100036,174.
Amiga
Forums
I There a 4 forums on Com-
puServe which deal specifically
with the AMIGA,
AMIGA ARTS FORUM [GO
AMIGAARTS] If you are interest-
ed in Drawing, Animation, Ren-
dering, Desktop Video or Music
this forum is for you.
AMIGA TECH FORUM
[GO AMIGATECH]
This is the programmer's
forum, If you are interested in
writing programs for the AMIGA
or in finding out about the all latest
hot gossip on new AMIGAS you
should check this one out. Also a
good place to find useful source
code and technical advice.
AMIGA VENDOR FORUMS
[GO AMIGAVEND]
Many of the big names in
AMIGA software and hardware
can be contacted directly through
this forum including ASGD - Art
Dept Professional, IMPLUSE -
Imagine, SOFTWOOD - Final
Writer and GVP. Music and MIDI
users should also check out the
Midi Vendors forum [GO MIDI-
FORUM] for BLUE RIBBON-
The makers of JAM and BARS
and PIPES.
AMIGA USER FORUM
[GO AMIGAUSER]
If it's not discussed in the other
forums you can just about guaran-
tee that it will be covered here.
This has certainly been a lively fo-
rum in recent months with the Hot
News and Rumours area running
hot with all the latest comings and
goings.
OTHER FORUMS
There are also a number of non
AMIGA specific forums which are
interest 6d§ many AMIGA users.
Try the Cyberspace forum [GO
CYBERFORUM] for some lively
Virtual Reality discussions or may
get some of the latest clip art from
one of the many ART GAL-
LERIES spread across Com-
puServe.
FILE LIBRARIES
In addition to lively discus-
sions each of the AMIGA forums
also carry a wide variety of
AMIGA specific files all of which
can be downloaded by users.
□
The editors of Amiga Review
frequent the AMIGAUSER forum
to bring you news on Commodore,
and updates on new products. You
can reach us on CompuServe at
74431,1224.
64
AMIGA Review
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Find-A-
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► This month I will be reviewing
another Rush Software Title. (Boy,
these guys have developed a lot of
educational software!). The pro-
gram is called Find-A-Word
Wizard and enables the user to
create word lists to solve on screen
or to print out if required.
The standard Find-A- Word can
have a maximum size of 25 x 20
characters. There is also the option
to print a Jumbo Find-A -Word that
measures 39 x 31 characters, but
cannot be played on screen.
Another useful feature is the
Shapes Creator, which lets you
make a Shape Find- A- Word. Some
example shapes are included on
the program disk.
I found the Shape Creator fun
and easy to use. It involves
selecting the paint colour and then
filling in certain squares on a
marked grid to create a shape. It
works on a similar principle to the
Icon Editor that comes with
Workbench.
This is a very good feature for
children, as rather than just solving
Find-A-Word puzzles they can
actually stimulate their creativity
by designing their own shapes.
The printouts look good; you
can output to laser printer or serial
printers as well as dot matrix.
Wordlisls for use in the puzzles
can be created easily from within
the program and can be edited at
any time. This saves the hassle of
using a text editor to create your
wordlists, and assures complete
compatibility.
When a wordlist is loaded
there is a delay which depends on
the complexity of the list, and then
the Find-A-Word is drawn by the
computer. After it is drawn you
must examine the wordlist dis-
played on the right of the screen
and then try to find the words. To
select a word, click on the first
letter in the word and if you have
selected the word correctly it will
remain highlighted and will be
removed from the wordlist.
Overall, I found this program
easy and fun to use and, as a
companion for Crossword Wizard
(reviewed in May 1994), it makes
a great set of utilities for creating
crosswords and find -a- words.
The program installs onto a
hard disk easily and has no copy
protection. Rush Software rely on
the honesty of the users of their
software. If you like creating
find-a-words then this program is
ideal.
For more information on this
program, and for details on
ordering contact Rush Software
on (042) 342107.
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AMIGA Review
65
Desktb:
.top j_^
l
PageStream 3.0
► "When is PageStream 3 for the
Amiga going to he released?"
Well, here's the latest from
Softlogic. They say the manual
will be sent to the printer in the
first week of July. They expect a
four week turnaround from the
printer. In the past a two week
turnaround has been normal, but
this new manual is much longer at
a massive 550 or more pages.
When the manual is back from the
printer, Softlogic will ship
PageStream3.
All of the boxes for your orders
are folded. All of the enclosed
.. a i Pages
materials have been collated and
stuffed into envelopes. The disk
labels have been printed and put
on the disks. They're as ready as
can be for the day the manual
comes back from the printer and
the program is done.
When they're told the manual
is being shipped, the programmers
will finish up any loose ends on
the program, duplicate the disks,
and mail out your orders.
Based on the printer's
estimates, Softlogic are saying the
program should ship at the very
end of July. They realize that this
I ED i C&
►I Two Colunn Master Page
Gil 'Stl delete | Edit | Info
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7
S
9
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11
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13
14
15
16
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£5
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£7
I I I 1 I 1 1 ~l I 1 I 1 I 1
is much later than originally
stated, and have apologised for the
delay.
Too aggressive
Softlogic admit they may have
been a bit too aggressive in their
estimates for shipping, but they
say they "really love writing DTP
software and want to give our
users every feature they have
asked for."
And how good will the first
release be? Softlogic say "We will
not release the program with any
known bugs. Many years ago, we
rushed the first version of
PageStream to market, and it has
taken us a long time to build our
reputation as a developer of high
quality software.
"We don't want to make that
mistake again and rush 3.0 to
market, so we are doing
everything possible to make the
first release of PageStream 3.0 as
bug-free as we can. As a result, we
have decided to upload a pre-release
beta demo of PageStream 3 to our
BBS, GEnie, CompuServe, and
Portal/fnternct. Watch for this in
mid- July.
"This will give you a chance to
play with the program and learn
about it before you create real
f
Q
*
66
AMIGA Review
<aso»
tf
documents. There are so many
features in the program that our
betatesters can't hope to test them
all, so you will be able to help us
ensure the first release is as solid
as possible. We encourage you to
download this demo version and
look over the program. It will only
be available online, not by mail;
you cannot call and ask us to mail
you a copy.
"When the manual is actually
at the printer, we'll give you an
estimate for the pre-release beta
demo. When we give you the
demo, we'll give you a final
estimate for the release of
PageStream 3".
New Import and Export
Options
According to Softlogic, one of
the amazing new feature of version
3.0 is the ability to import an
Aldus Freehand EPS illustration,
edit it, and then export it in Adobe
Illustrator EPS format. No other
DTP program can do that, not even
a Mac or PC DTP program!
Pictures look wonderful in 256
colors on AGA Amiga computers,
and in 16 colors on non-AGA
machines.
The floating Edit palette is an
incredible time-saver, as are the
recordable ARexx macros. And
yes, after all these years,
PageStream finally can
print real thumbnails, and
has every tab alignment
type you could want, plus
dot leaders (filled tabs)!
Gradient Fills
If you're a PostScript
user, wait until you try an
inverse saw-tooth gradient
fill with a propeller spot
function - you can even
make the gradient in the
shape of the object rather
than a simple linear or
logarithmic gradient. Choose
a PostScript Printer Description
file to automatically set the
optimum screen angles and
frequencies (the cryptic
Special text gadget has finally
been retired!).
BME 2.0 is also great.
Softlogic didn't promise
any new features for it
beyond ARexx support
because they weren't sure
what they'd have time to
do, but here's the scoop.
BME2 has been upgraded
to work in up to 16/256
colors, depending on your
computer, and has also been
rewritten from scratch! Like
Page- Stream, it features
^
Q
□
a
o
A
&
<ft
recordable ARexx, but it
can do much more to a
picture now than before.
In addition to basic
painting and filling an area,
BME2 can move selection
areas, and change the
contrast or brightness of a
picture. You can pixelize a
picture for neat effects, and
even convert between
CMYK, RGB, grayscale,
palette and black and
white.
The autotracing feature
now has simpler controls to
make it easier to get good
results, and clipboard
support has been added.
Best of all, BME uses the
same import/export filters
as Page- Stream 3, so you
can import and export in
IFF ILBM, TIFF, GIF,
PCX, and BMP formats!
□
Next month we'll run the
comparison chart which
shows the power of
PageStream 3.0'$ new fea-
tures compared to Quark
Express and Professional
Page,
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AMIGA Review
67
14 Whiting Street
Artarmon NSW 2064
Ph: (02)906 4801
Fax: (02) 906 1112
REAL 3D now has full support in
Australia via a full-time technical
support expert, BBS, training, user
groups, newsletters & updates.
Version 2.48 makes REAL 3D the most
powerful programme available for 3D
rendering & animation on any
affordable desktop platform.
CALL FOR MORE
***IMPORTANT NOTICE***
Digipix is now the ONLY official Australian
distributor for Digital Broadcaster systems!
Forget the previous hype, the final release product will not be
available until late July. They will ONLY be available from
Digipix, and will cost about $13,500. CALL IN FOR A DEMO.
The PERSONAL ANIMATION RECORDER from DPS is NOW
AVAILABLE for $4,800. The associated video capture card
costs $2,500. Prices for both systems do not include hard drives.
***SPECIALS***
Maestro 28.800! V.Fast Fax/Modem $800
Maestro 14,400 V42bis Fax/Modem $500
Opalvision with FREE Montage 24 $1,000
Digipix specialises in professional applications, particularly
Film and Television. The Company Directors have a total of 34
yeais experience in the broadcast film and television industry.
Digipix sells ONLY professional products that have been tested
and approved by our team. We have a bureau service available
for transfers to and from broadcast videotape & film,
REAL 3D NEWS - AVAILABLE NOW
Windows 3.1 release version. It absolutely flies on a Pentium!
Stand alone render engines for Amiga, Windows and Windows NT.
Automatic network distributed rendering on IBM (Amiga soon).
(Windows NT, Silicon Graphics and Sun versions soon).
AMIGA ...
The Next Generation
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High Density FDD Ext $299
Em plant Mac Emulator $790
SCSI Tape Drives from $450
Micro Vitec Monitors $799
Call for latest pricing on..
Amiga Hardware
Addison Wesley Books
Bruce Smith Books
CD-ROMs & Disks
DeskTop Video Solutions
Neriki & E.D. Genlocks
DKB & OVP Hardware
Hard Drives (IDE/SCSI)
Networking Solutions
QuickNet now SANA-II
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Mac & Amiga Software
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Tel: 02-417-5155
Fax: 02-41 7-5542 BBS: 02-970-6444
We are taking subscriptions for all overseas
magazines including CD32 titles - available
to you within two weeks of publication.
© CALL NOW ©
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We have extensive experience and spares for Hard
Drive repairs and Data recovery. We will buy and
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Tuto
► To a new user, even one who has
used other 3D packages, REAL
3D's abundance of requesters,
menus, tools and features can
seem overwhelming. In this series
of articles, I aim to provide many
useful short hints and tips to help
you towards your nest masterpiece
image or animation with REAL
3D.
I will feature new material not
in the REAL 3D documentation,
as well as coverage of areas users
have had the most difficulty with,
and occasional hot news. To
maintain interest for both beg-
inners and experienced users, the
tips will be short and sweet for
advanced users, and there will also
be fairly detailed material for less
experienced users. I'll provide
look-up references in the longer
tutorials.
Clip Mapping
First, we need something to
map. Mapping is the process of
projecting each pixel of an image
onto a 3D object.
In a paint program, pick a large
sized font and type in some text in
any colour other than the
background colour. Pick it up as a
brush, and save the brush into the
R3D2:Textures drawer with a
suitable name, for example
clip.brush.
Next, create a sphere in REAL
3D in XY (front) view. Now open
the materials window and create a
material with the following
characteristics:
Name - Clip, Texture - use the
brush you just created. Use the
materials window Define/texture
menu to select it.
Select colour map, Clip map,
and Transparent colour boxes.
Also, make sure that the Transp.R
Transp.G & Transp.B gadgets are
0, 0, 0. Click apply, and close the
materials window.
LMB (left mouse button) drag
select around the sphere, change to
XZ (top) view, select menu
ere ate/mapping/sphere, select the
Clip material, drag select around
the sphere again to snap to its
centre, and then size the mapping
sphere just a little larger than your
sphere object. Change back to XY
(front) view.
Here are some important points
and manual references. See tutorial
page 3.9 - Clip mapping will not
work with either draft or environ-
ment rendering because only
transparency is simulated in these
modes to increase rendering speed.
Also see tutorial page 5.2 - if
your scene contains transparent
objects, or you are using clip
AMIGA Review
69
mapping, the environment colour
and the background colour should
be equal, and neither background
or environment gradient functions
should be used.
So open the render settings
window, choose Lampless mode,
make sure the environment and
background colours are the same,
and none of the environment
mapping boxes are ticked.
Take a perspective view, use
the cursor keys to get a suitable
viewing angle, Render, and there it
is - clip mapping!
If you need environment maps,
you can create scene objects and
give them a "scene" attribute so
they are not visible except by
reflection from objects in your
scene.
Some ideas on how you can
use clip mapping. You can create
very complex looking objects, but
all they are is one simple solid and
a texture. For example, a chain
link fence. The easy way - draw a
large single portion repeatable
chain-wire : pattern in a paint
program using a red gradient to
define the relative heights, brighter
means higher.
Make it a tiled bump and clip
map material and parallel map it
onto a rectangle. Bingo, Instant
fence. If you need to zoom in to
one link of the fence full-screen,
you'll have to model the fence.
You can use the compound tools
to do this, but we'll leave that for
another time.
If you want to use 24 bit
brushes or images as clip maps,
the transparent colour is defined in
24 bit colour space, so all values
vary between and 255. Some
extra care is needed to ensure you
enter the' correct RGB values for
the background colour into the
materials window Transp.R
Transp.G & Transp.B gadgets. It
works just as well.
ON THE BLINK - on again,
off again (for advanced
users)
Here's how to turn various
objects on and off using the
ATTRIBUTES animation method.
You can use this to animate on/off
things like motion blur, mapping,
light source, and invisibility
attributes.
You can make blinking lights,
objects that disappear, or textures
that blink in and out. In fact, any
object attribute. Quite a powerful
method. Create the following
structure.
NOTES
Object -
(Level containing your objects)
Targets -
(objects to be affected)
Attributes -
(ATTRIBUTES)
(attributes animation method)
Active ■
(create/controls/attribute - set the
ON attribute)
Inactive -
(create/controls/attribute - set the
OFF attribute)
Techno blurb
If the time is within the time
line of the object, the method
assigns the attributes of the
attribute object to the target
objects. Otherwise the second
attribute object is used. Or you can
use the timeline editor to set the
start and end of the action with the
mouse.
What does this mean? Well,
create the above hierarchy with a
sphere as the target, make the first
attribute as RT-In visible, and the
second, not RT-Invisible. Now add
a tag to the ATTRIBUTES method
(t hotkey):
SFOR I = Frm % 2
SFOR means 'String FOR-
mula', T is a general purpose
variable. The 'Frm' variable is
defined by the animation system
and is the current frame number.
The '%' is the maths modulo
operator which does the job. The
result of the operation 'Frm %'T
is 1 for odd frames and for even
frames. This means the object
blinks out every odd frame! Try a
ray -trace of this one, but you will
need to slow the animation down
to see it blinking.
Try SFOR 1 = Frm % 5 for a
blink every 5th frame. More
complex formulas are even more
interesting. Try this one :-
SFOR 1 = if (sin (t* 2* PI) > 0, 1, 0)
You can use any of the many
REAL 3D variables in formulas
like this for just about anything.
It's hard to find things you can't
do. See the docs and on-line help
for all the variables you can use!
NICE WORK - what REAL
3D users are doing.
The realistic plastic cup image
on the first page is by Steve
Griffin from Adelaide, SA. Steve
produces commercial work with
REAL 3D, and the original very
large IFF24 version of this was
used in a recent full page
magazine product advertisement.
Steve can be contacted on (08) 433
448.
LETS FACE IT - full frontal
fonts
Here's a quick tip to improve
the look of those logos and fonts
with the boring flat faces which
always seem to reflect badly front
on. For each letter or single section
of the logo, create a very large
cylinder in top view and do a
boolean AND between the
cylinder and the letter to put a very
slight curve on the front face. This
70
AMIGA Review
will give you a nice glint as you
pan or zoom past. See the picture
to get the idea,
HOT NEWS
• Available mid-June - Stand
Alone Render Engines (SARE's)
for Amiga and Windows 3.1 (no
dongie required). You should see
REAL 3D rendering on a Pentium!
• Amiga Version 2.48 upgrade,
free for V2.47 owners.
• Final release Windows version.
Includes free SARE.
• Available late July - Auto- matic
Distributed Rendering (ADR) for
Amiga and Windows.
• DEC Alpha WINDOWS NT
version (with SARE & ADR).
• Intel WINDOWS NT version
(with SARE & ADR),
• SARE'S for SGI (Silicon
Graphics) and SUN.
• Apex (the Essence folks) are
close to releasing Forge for REAL
3D. Should be hot!
REAL 3D USERS
FAVOURITE PASTIMES
Watching the look on 3D
Studio (well known PC 3D
package) users' faces when you
zoom in close to a lens magnifying
something in REAL 3D. Perfect
glass, no object faces, no jaggies,
real magnification, no fuss.
This is a two minute demo any
REAL 3D user could do in their
sleep since version 1.3 days. Ho
hum. Next challenge please! The
PC version of REAL will put the
cat among the pigeons!
IS THERE ANYBODY OUT
THERE? - A whole world of
support.
REAL 3D support includes:
Phone/FAX - Free telephone
support for registered REAL 3D
users.
BBS - see the latest list in
REAL 3D V2.48's on-line help.
tLets face it,
a curved font
frontal
Australian BBS is Compulink (02)
970 6444.
Internet - There is a
world-wide REAL 3D mailing list
full of news, questions, answers,
reports and tips. Ail the support
guys from around the world hang
out here.
The Internet REAL 3D
Mailing List Address is as follows:
real3d@gu. uwa.edu.au. To join
the list, you must have an Internet
mailing address. In order to
subscribe to the mailing list, send a
message to:
listserv@gu. uwa. edu. a u
Subject Line: REAL 3D
The first line of the message
should read:
subscribe real3d FirstName
LastName (<- put your name here)
If you have problems, e-mail
the REAL3D Mailing List
Administrator:
brendan@ucc. gu. uwa. edu. au
Local User Groups - currently
being organised in each major city.
Newsletter - hints, tips and
news. Posted to registered users,
by Digipix, the Australian distrib-
utor of REAL 3D.
NEXT TIME
The next article will include
RPL Tricks & Macros, What's
Your Vector Victor? - What's this
vector stuff? Nice Water - Refract
and have some nice bumpy waves,
Procedural Textures - How to use
them. Also, comments, submiss-
ions and hints from readers are
most welcome. Send 'em in!
Real 3D, PO Box 288,
GladesvMe, NSW 2111
Until then, it's gotta be REAL!
AMIGA Review
71
THE GVP MULTIMEDIA A1 200
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Peripheral Port |DPP] gives you power, performance, and expandability
unmatched anywhere.
At 291 SCSI Kit Performance Series II
The A1291 SCSI Kit provides the single most
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interface. This kit adds a high-performance
external DMA SCSI-II interface to an A1230
Turbo+ Performance Series II accelerator and
uses the latest in active termination technology for stable, noise
free SCSI data transfer. The performance and flexibility of SCSI
devices is unsurpassed, and the A1291 SCSI Kit allows you take full
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Our newest 8-bit digital sound sampling
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files. DSS8+ offers all the tools needed to create and develop sound
effects and audio segments for presentations. Its output is compati-
ble with a wide range of Multimedia applications such as Scala 1 ",
MediaPoint" and AmigaVision™.
ImageFX
ImageFX is a revolutionary product that
combines the traditional elements of image
processing, image editing, painting, and prepress color correction
with high-end special effects and morphing for video, film, anima-
tion, and still image work. ImageFX is easy-to-use in almost every
respect: it supports a large variety of image file formats so you don't
have to worry about converting files before working on them, it
supports Virtual Memory so you don't have to worry about mniring
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go digging for the manual — help is only a HELP key away!
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The G-Lock genlock is a highly versatile,
professional quality genlocking board for the
Amiga platform. In any multimedia comput-
ing environment, the need to manage multiple video and audio
sources is critical, whether you view them on your computer screen
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Amiga is a registered trademark o( Commodore-Amiga, Inc. All otrier trademarks are held oy ttiair respective companies.
Ahlh
By
Andrew
Leniart
Correction - Frozen Fish
CD-ROM
Last issue 1 made an incorrect
statement regarding the Frozen
Fish CD-ROM disk. I said that it
could be used on MS-DOS
machines. Quite simply, I was
wrong.
I ordered and purchased the
Frozen Fish CD-ROM disk for my
own BBS from Megadisc and
quickly found out that MS-DOS
will not read most of the contents.
Sure, the filenames are mostly
eight characters with a three
character suffix, but they are
completely innacessible to an
MS-DOS machine because of the
way the disk has been designed
and laid out. To my mind, this is
absolutely crazy.
It's a well known fact that
many, in fact most, Amiga
supporting bulletin boards are run
on IBM clones under MS-DOS.
This is the case because of the
abundance of cheap or free BBS
software available for the IBM
platform. Besides, why waste good
Amiga CPU time with a meanless
task like running a BBS when a
cheap second hand clone can do
the job for you?
For a CD-ROM disk seller like
Fred Fish to create a "BBS ready"
Amiga BBS CD in such a way that
MS-DOS machines can't read it
effectively ensures that hundreds,
if not thousands, of copies world
wide will never be sold. This is
self defeating and crazy. I'll be
contacting Fred Fish shortly about
this and will report back in these
pages when I have an answer.
Offline Mail Reading
Quite a lot has been written in
the past about the advantages of
"pointing" for mail from a BBS.
Yet even though the benefits are
many, it requires a certain amount
of dedication on your part and
naturally doesn't suit everyone.
If you're not a mail freak and
just want to occasionally catch up
on the latest gossip in a few
conferences, you might like to
consider offline mail reading
instead. It works on a similar
system to pointing, without
needing a great deal of hard disk
space or other system resources.
I'll be using the Blue Wave
offline mail system in my exam-
ples here, because I've found it to
be the best system for both the
system operator and user, and also
because it's now very well
supported by the Amiga platform.
AMYBW
The only Blue Wave reader that
used to be available for the Amiga
was QBlue, with its five message
limit until registered. It had limited
features and didn't support many
COMMUNICATIONS
of the options that the BlueWave
system offers. I'm happy to say
that things aTe looking MUCH
better now! Enter AmyBW by
Leon Makkink.
This little reader is a dream to
set up and can only be described as
sensational! Just about everything
can be configured, including font
used, colours, which editor you
want to use to write your messages
with and more. AmyBW also
gives you the ability to "freq" (file
request) files to be sent with your
mail packets.
You can automatically send
private netmail replies to echomail
messages if you choose to, append
taglines to your messages, steal
taglines from other people's
messages, create a file which
contains short names for people
you like to regularly exchange
mail with and a whole lot more. So
how much would you expect to
pay for something as useful as
this? Twenty dollars US? Thirty?
How about nothing? That's
right folks, this power packed
utility is absolutely free. Getting
rid of the [Not Registered]
message is as easy as sending a
netmail to the author. Great stuff!
The Blue time ConpsuSHe Off I me Header!
Hs# |9S of 153 Bead
FreH Iflndrey Farrell
Seef
To All
; Add tone
Sub j (tonnodore Situation Updal
The following article appeared
Aniga future sHll hopeful
By Andrew Farrsll
(cJ 1994
p[ Reply ta a nessaje.
|23:89:57
Date |18 Hay 94 23:45
_3
Hane jHiJarewTirriTt
Short jflCflR-Et | flddr
13:114/989.1 |
Jubj (tonnedore Situation
Update |
flit
___J
_|HetHail bits' IB
Area JFidoKet -=NETKfllL =
M i_j £co
5S Post
J
Car&on Copy |
fj-OFI IHII1IHH
Sfj Add ftne... |
Io (Undrew Farretl
I Look Up,,. |
flidr |3: 714/9*9, S |
Subj l&mnwlore Situation
Update
_ I
Ik
iapceli
__| Crash
| Direct
j Hold
j/J Immediate
j/jKiil/Sent
j File Seq.
__ Hith File
AMIGA Review
73
L^^BJ
HnyBK - -The Blue Have Canpatible Offline Reader \
Board Hwe jflndv's Rttid
Sysop Hunt jflndrew Len tart
Address |3"S33/1l6.i
Packet |flflTTIC.SB2
Login Hane Jflndrew LenUrt
Alias Nafie [The Mad Mer
Download AmyBW from your
nearest Amiga supporting BBS
and get in on the action. If you
can't find it anywhere, feel free to
log on to my BBS and download it
from here. Just log in as GUEST
(no password required) and head
for the Free Files area, Once you
have your copy, here's how it all
works.
Getting Your Mail
Next time you log onto your
favorite BBS, enter the BlueWave
door and you'll be asked to answer
a few simple questions about
things like which transfer protocol
and archiver you want to use and
so on. Once that's done, simply
select the message areas which
you are interested in reading and
hit the mail bundling key. The
BBS end will make up a mail
packet for you containing all the
areas you selected. It'll archive it
with the archiver of your choice
and prompt you to download it.
Download the mail packet and
you're ail set!
Now you can fire up AmyBW
when you've logged off and spend
as little or as much time reading
and replying to mail as you please.
No time limits to worry about, no
line noise, no family members
hounding you to untie the phone
so that they can use it. When you
log back on to the BBS next time,
simply go into the BlueWave door
again and use the Upload Replies
function to upload any replies
you've made. How much easier
could it be?
BBS fipeas [58
Replies |F~
Total Hsgs J245
Unread fls?s |i97
Personal Msss |5
NetriaU Credits (3163
HetHaif tebits [1
Things to Know
Now that you can read and
reply to messages in various
conferences, you may find
yourself scratching your head at
some of the abbreviations. After a
while, I guarantee you'll find
yourself using a lot of these
yourself. Their purpose is to
simply say something common
without the need to type it all out.
Here are a few of the more popular
ones as examples to start you on
your way.
ADN: Any Day Now
AFA1K; As Far As I Know
BK: Because
BTSOOM: Beats The (Stuffing?)
Out Of Me
CMIIW: Correct Me If I'm Wrong
CULSR: See You Later
FITS: Fill In The Blank
FUBAR: Fouled Up Beyond All
Recognition
FWIW: For What It's Worth
FY1: For Your Information
GD&R: Grinning, Ducking, and
Running
GO PRI: send private mail
GR8T: Great
HLVB: Hasta La Vista Baby
IAE: In Any Event
IMHO: In My Humble Opinion
1MO: In My Opinion
IOW: In Other Words
rrSFWIr If The Shoe Fits, Wear It
L8R: Later
LLAP: Live Long and Prosper
LOL: Laughing Out Loud
NBD: No Big Deal
NRN: No Reply Necessary
NTL: Nevertheless, or
Nonetheless
ROFL: Rolling On the Floor
Laughing
RSN: Real Soon Now - industry
term denoting indeterminate
period of time
RTFM: Read The (Fabulous?)
Manual
SNAFU: Situation Normal: All
Fouled Up
TTBOMK: To The Best Of My
Knowledge
TTFN: Ta Ta For Now
Well don't just sit there! Grab
your copy and get in on the action.
Next month, some of the do's and
dont's of participating in Echomail
conferences. Andrew Leniart may
be contacted direct via modem at
Andy's Attic BBS 24Hrs a day on
(03) 749-4897 Fidonet address
3:6331106, AMigaNet 41:300/106.
□
AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN
SOFTWARE
Over 7000 disks to choose from
No Postage Charges -
Australia only
(Overseas orders add A$5.00)
DI SKS FROM $2^50
All orders shipped within 24krs ofrecipt
Send $5.00 for 3 Disk Catalogue
Catalogue Updated free with orders
GAMES PACK 1 (WB1.3 only)
10 disks full of games (over 50)
Plus catalogue disks $30.00
GAMES PACK 2 (WB2.0 only)
10 disks full of games (over 45)
Plus catalogue disks $30.00
CManual on 12 disks $34.95
Includes six manuals, 40 chapters. 1 75
fully executable examples complete
with source code, plus other goodies.
17 BIT, AMOS, FISH, AMAZ. AMICUS,
FAUG, NZAUO, TBAG. AMIGOZ. MUSIC
& SOUND, APPLICATIONS. UTILITIES.
ANIMATION, DEMOS, GRAPHICS,
SCOPE PLUS OTHERS.
WE ALSO HAVE OUR OWN RANGE OF
OVER 600 DISKS ALL SELFBOOTING
AND READY TO USE.
Deja Vtt Licenceware - CLR Licenceware
Amiga Public Domain Centre
PO Box 435, St Agnes SA 5097
Phone (081 396 2163 Fax (08) 263 1393
We accept Bankcard, Mastercard and Visa
Money Orders and Cheques
74
AMIGA Review
CKJTPUTfB
HIT =7+1
BID IF
PROGRAMMING
BLITZ AND GADTOOLS
I This month's topic of discussion
is designing and using Gadtools
Graphical User Interfaces from
within your Blitz programs.
Gadtools are a collection of
system gadgets and menus for
Workbench 2 and above. They
were supposed to make gadgets
more accessible and flexible to
Intuition programmers, who up
until then were struggling through
a long laborious process to put
even the simplest buttons or sliders
in their applications.
Whether Commodore was
successful in this endeavour is still
very much open to debate, but like
them or hate them, Gadtools have
become very popular. I get by far
the most calls from users who
have lost their way with
programming their Gadtools
GUI's,
Gadtools support was added to
Blitz in issue 5 of the Blitz User
Magazine, or BUM for short.
Several bug fixes and extensions
have been added in issue 6,
including the revised docs. If you
got Blitz from the Amiga Format
cover disk, you won't have the
latest version, and may not have
Gadtools support. You should be
using v 1.8 for the best results. You
can discover what version of Blitz
you have in the opening requester
when you first run it.
The first stage in the creation
of your slick, ground breaking
graphical user interface is to
design the. on screen layout of all
your windows, buttons and sliders.
This can be very tedious when
done by hand. Trying to line up the
rows of gadgets neatly is almost
impossible, and there's no way to
try it out as you go either.
Aargh!
Luckily, help is at hand, in the
form of GUI designers. If you
haven't seen these, imagine a
program which allows pro-
grammers to create their buttons,
sliders and windows by moving
them around on the screen with the
mouse, and adding new gadgets
with simple menu selections. You
can even go into a special test
mode, which allows you to play
with your interface to get a real
feel for it from a user's per-
spective! When you are happy
with the layout, you simply order
the program to create the Blitz
source code for you, and include
that in your program.
Blitz used to ship with a GUI
designer called "Intuitools", which
has been greatly revamped and
improved to allow the creation of
complex custom Gadtools inter-
faces, in addition to full support
for all your old favourite standard
Blitz gadgets. If you haven't got
Intuitools Version II, and you
design the odd GUI, it's well
worth getting hold of. The catch is
it's only available to Blitz User
Magazine subscribers.
Another option is to use a PD
designer called "Gadtools Box" to
create your interface, then convert
the program's machine language
output into Blitz code using
another utility. Both the latest
version of Gadtools Box and the
conversion utility are available on
Compulink (Amiga Connection)
BBS on (02) 970 6444.
Having created your interface,
either by hand or by using a utility,
the time has come to plug it into
your program. This month, I'll
show you how to create a simple
application which highlights all
the basic principles involved.
From there, I hope you can go on
to create bigger and better things,
then send them in to me for a look.
The program is a calculator,
which is a module from an actual
commercial application currently
under development. The object of
this module is to allow a user to
design a robot from various parts
and components, and update the
costs display in real time as the
user fiddles with various configur-
ation options.
The module was created with
Intuitools 2, and the source code
imported into the main program.
The main section is just an event
loop which sleeps until the user
interacts with a gadget, when the
program acts on the user's request,
updating the display.
The source code for the whole
program, transplanted into a com-
plete program which you can type
in and run, is over the page.
EXPLANATION
First, the program asks the
system for the Workbench screen,
so that Blitz can open a window on
the Workbench. Next, it instructs
Blitz to move the Workbench
screen to the front, and not to open
a default CLI window.
Then comes the output of the
Intuitools utility, which was used
not only to position the gadgets,
but to define their properties as
well. By using the GTtags
command, the program displays
the current level of the slider in (in
this case) two digit format.
After some simple positioning
of checkboxes (some are disabled
to illustrate the technique) the
program sets up some numeric
display boxes. The GTNumber and
GTText gadgets are used for
displaying data, not allowing the
user to interact with them.
The AddlDCMP command
tells Blitz to send messages to
AMIGA Review
75
PROGRAMMING
DEFTYPE.1
WbToScreen : NoCli: WBetichToFront_
fS="^2!d":#tag=$80080000
; format siring and tag constant
GTTags #tag+42,&f$,#tag+41,2 ; Show slider value tag
GTSlider0,1.32,ll,138,9,"CARGO",2,0,10
GTTags #tagt42,&f$,#tag+41,2
GTSliderO,2,32,23,138,9,"ARMOUR",2,0,10
GTTags #tag+42,&f$,#tag+41,2
GTSHder 0,3,32,35,138,9, "ENGINE ",2,0, 10
GTCheckBox 0,4,411,49,26, 11, "TacNuke",2:GTDisable 0,4
GTCheckBox 0,5,41 l,36,26,ll,"Rockets",2:GTDisable 0,5
GTCheckBox 0,6,411,23,26,11, "Laser" ,2 :GTDisable 0,6
GTCheckBox 0,7,41 1, 10,26,ll,"BoJtguns",2
GTCheckBox 0,8,291,10,26,ll,"Vision",2
GTCheckBox 0,9, 292,23 ,26, 11, "Radar" ,2
GTCheckBox 0,10,292,49,26,1 l,"Sesmic",2
GTCheckBox 0,11,292,36,26,1 l,"Infra",2
GTNumber 0,12,160,58,32,12, ''ORE",1,0
GTNumber 0,13, 160,72,32,12,"FUEL",1,0
GTNumber 0,14,160,86,32,12, "TRON1CS",1,0
GTNumber 0,15,160,10U,32,12,' ! BIO",1,0
AddlDCMP S 400010 ; scroll od mouse
Window 0,52,45,523,134,4622, "Droid Designer V1.0",l,2,0 ; open window
AttachGTList 0,0 ; attach GT list
GTBevelBox 0,8,18,240,43,0
GTBevelBox 0, 84,65, 140,64,#tag+33
Repeat
; scroller's frame
; cost's indented frame
ev=WaitEvent
Select ev
Case $40 ; GADGET EVENT
; Gadget played with, so display new cost!
If GadgetHit=l Then caigo=EventCode
If GadgetHit=2 Then armour=EventCode
If GadgetHit=3 Then engine =EventCode
co=cargo+armour+engine
ct=engine
cf=engine
If GTGetAttrs(0,7,$80080004) Then co+2:ct+l:cf+2 ; Boltguns
Fort=8Toll
[f GTGetAttrs(0,t,$8OO8OOO4) Then co+l:ct+3:cf+l ; Sensor units
Next
GTSetlnteger 0,12,co
GTSetlnteger 0,13,cf
GTSetlnteger 0,14,ct
GTSetlnteger 0,15,eb
End Select
Until ev=$200 ; repeat until a Window closed event happens
WBetichToBack
End
Intuition every time the mouse
moves and gadgets are held down.
This lets GadTools update values
while the user holds the mouse
down over a gadget. Try leaving
this out and observe the effect.
Now the GadTools have been
initialised, we can get into the
program proper. A window is
opened, and the prepared Gad-
Tools list of gadgets attached to it
with the AttachGTList command.
Some decorative bevel boxes are
added to make the display more
attractive and functional. Accor-
ding to Commodore's style guide,
raised areas are for the user to
manipulate, lowered areas are for
information only.
The main body of code is
within a Repeat.,. Until loop, which
continues until the user hits the
close gadget. Inside this loop, the
program is put to sleep with a
WaitEvent command. This makes
Blitz wait until an event happens.
In this case we're really only
interested in gadget events, and
these are acted upon.
In general, Blitz tells you
which gadget the user hit via the
GadgetHit command, and the
value is returned by the EventCode
command. An example of this is
the slider handling, which sets a
basic variable to a value to 10,
based on which slider the user
moved. The status of checkboxes
is found by a call to GTGetAttrs,
and the costing variables are
refreshed and displayed with a call
to GTSetlnteger.
Although this example is a
simple one, I hope it illustrates the
general technique for GUI creation
within the Blitz environment.
You can reach me via modem
on Powerhouse (042) 616380 or
in Sydney on Compulink (02) 970
6444. You can write me snail mail
at Box 1420, Wolhngong 2500.
76
AMIGA Review
Good
Design
^Finally, Amiga Review is 100% produced using Amigas!"
> "How many pixels are there in
an inch?" That question was
actually asked by a work mate, it's
a bit like asking how much water
is there in a bucket. It depends on
many things. However, the
question illustrates the need to
understand the basics. Anyone can
desktop publish, but not everyone
can do it well. Sure, you need to
be able to use the software and
hardware, but you also need to
understand what good design
means.
Communicating
Communicating or Just
Making Pretty Shapes, by Colin
Wheildon, is a booklet based on a
four year study of typographic
design by the Newspaper
Advertising Bureau of Australia
((02) 955 1044). Wheildon
highlights interesting surveys of
differing designs and their success
in communicating messages.
To quote the booklet, "design
is not, or should not be, mere
decoration and abstraction, but
part of the business of communi-
cation."
Although the authors didn't
want the results to be taken as
design rules, they are excellent
guidelines. The skill in designing
comes from knowing the basic
rules, and then breaking them
creatively.
Just about everybody has their
own opinion on what makes a
good design. But no matter what
style you adopt, you should not
forget the whole purpose for which
you are designing - to communi-
cate a message.
Good design can only be
measured by the response of those
for whom it was intended. If you
produced, for example, a booklet
that looked fantastic, yet made it
hard for the reader to understand
your message, you've failed. You
must consider you market's needs
before you begin designing.
For example, I also do a lot of
production on PC Review. When
the company I work for took over
the magazine a year ago, we
decided to change the format.
Since PC Review is aimed at
non-expert small office and home
computer users, we kept a simple
By Stuart Farrell
design.
Was this strategy successful?
We doubled our circulation in
under a year!
The New Look AGAR
Now, we've revamped Amiga
Review. Amiga owners are more
interested in the graphic side of
their computers than PC owners
(we tried an Art Gallery in PC
Review, but it fizzled out). So
when were changing the format of
this magazine, we were more
liberal with the design.
So now, you have an Amiga
magazine produced entirely using
Amigas, from the design and
layout to colour separations.
We use Professional Page 4.1,
although we're holding our breath
for PageSrream 3.0. From the
feature list (which we'll publish
next issue), the new PageStream
beats the pants of ProPage and
matches Quark Express. Until then
though, I'll run a little ProPage
hints and tips section at the end of
this column, and give away all my
secrets. Well, maybe a few.
AMIGA Review
77
D^op^fe
We arc returning to rendered
images on the cover, as we feel
3-D imaging is one of the Amiga's
strong points (if you've got it,
ftauDt it!). We've also taken the
Art Gallery to four pages. We are
also testing the new "bulky" paper
sections, and there are many other
subtle changes. If you hate them or
love them, write to us - we are
always interested in hearing what
our readers think!
Professional Page Tip
When designing in ProPage,
the screen refresh can become very
annoying, particularly when you
are pressed for time. To speed
things up, pull down the prefer-
ences menu with the right mouse
button. The options you're Inter-
ested in are Wireframe Graphics,
Black & White and Screen Mode.
Firstly, your screen mode.
Normally this would be set to 640
X 512. But if you're dealing with
an A4 page and want to have a
reasonable magnification you can
adjust the size of the screen you're
working with, so you can scroll
around without a refresh.
As you can see in the Pic
opposite, the screen size 1 use is
800 X 900.
Wireframe Graphics, turns any
clip art into a wire frame; ProPage
won't redraw it every time it
refreshes the screen. Black &
White reduces the displayed image
resolution and turns colour into
grey, for a further speed boost.
You can also opt to hide images by
double clicking on the image box
and clicking Hide Contents.
Wanting: ProPage has an
interesting bug, whereby if you
save a folio with several images all
hidden, or choose not to load the
Bitmaps it may swap them around,
or simply put the same image in all
of the boxes.
So you must check all the
images are correct before you
output anything.
One more hint. When you
double click on an image box,
you'll notice a small button called
Bitmap Info. Click on this and you
can see what the file is called and
the size and type of image. Very
useful if you are dealing with
multiple images and you forget
what one is called. Not that I ever
do thai. (See pic below.)
If your having any problems
using Pro Page, send mc your
questions and I'll attempt to
answer them. Next month I'll look
at a few bugs and how to get
around them.
Until next month, happy
publishing, and I hope you like the
new look Amiga Review!
a
1
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AM/GA /Jcview
I A new public domain library has
been launched in Australia, trading
as Graphics Company. As the
name might imply, Graphics
Company focuses only on graphics
and graphic application software
for the C64 and 128. Of special
interest to GEOS users is their
collection of GEOS clips, which
may be imported into geoPamt,
geoWrite, geoPubush, and SO on.
Graphics Company can also
convert your images between IBM
and Commodore formats. For
more information or a catalogue,
write to Graphics Company, 19
Fletcher Court, Wodonga Vic
3690.
The Eastern Suburbs Comm-
odore Group of Melbourne would
like it known that their user group
is still alive and kicking. ESCG
caters for all C64/128 users, but is
especially interested in hearing
from new C64/128 owners.
For more information contact
Geoff Trovers on (03) 800 1223.
If there are other user groups
around Australia or New Zealand
looking to promote themselves,
send your details to:
The €64 Column, PO Box
288, Gladesville NSW 2111 or via
Fido Netmail at 3:713/888.999.
Scarce Software
Software for the C64 is
becoming increasingly scarce, and
not just in Australia. In the US,
where the C64 has enjoyed the
most popularity over the past ten
years, retailers are leaving the
market in droves, as are the major
wholesalers. US-produced C64
publications, of which there were
once many, have dwindled down
leaving just the newcomer from
CMD, Commodore World.
In Britain, the picture is
slightly more rosy. The C64 still
remains a popular choice among
game players, and there are several
new games released each month.
There are still a handful of C64
magazines coming out of Britain,
but few offer anything more than
game tips and reviews.
Here in Australia, although
most retailers and wholesalers
have long since abandoned the
C64, it still enjoys good support
from public domain outlets and a
handful of local retailers. It has
become a hotly traded item at
garage sales and local markets
where a keen shopper can pick up
an entire system very cheaply.
New Disks
Brunswick Publications, long-
time supporters of the C64, con-
tinue to release compilation disks
of C64 software at a regular rate.
Below are some of their more
recent releases.
DISK 192 - Children's Edu-
cation. Contains a large collection
of educational programs for
children aged between 5 and 12.
Programs cover such subjects as
maths and spelling, and most use
graphics and sound. This disk also
includes three interactive fairy
stories and several games.
DISK 193 - Disk Drive
Maintenance. This disk includes
many hints and tips for disk drives.
Included are text files describing
care and cleaning of your drive
and reducing drive "knock", along
with several do-it-yourself disk
drive projects for the electronically
gifted.
DISK 194 - GEOS PD - IBM
Clipart. This is a double-sided disk
with a mammoth collection of clip
art converted from the IBM world
to C64 format for use in GEOS
applications. TheTe are over 500
images on this disk, covering a
wide range of subjects. A great
start for those dabbling in
publishing or just wanting to
spruce up their letters.
DISK 197 - Stationery Store.
This is a program especially
designed for users with a Star
LC-10, MPS 1230, CBM 1525 and
most other Commodore com-
patible printers. Designed to print
lined paper, music staves, calen-
dars, grocery lists, letterheads,
forms, and more.
DISK 200 - Assemblers. The
C64 is one of the easiest
computers to leam the basics of
assembly language programming
on. This disk includes four
machine code assemblers, inclu-
ding the hugely popular 65 10+.
Also on disk are several sample
source code listings and instruc-
tions on how to get started. If
you're at all interested in learning
programming, this disk is a great
place to start.
DISK 205 - This disk contains
Calc VI .3, a full -featured spread-
sheet program. It's quite simple to
use, and is suitable for home and
small business use. Also on this
disk is the Easy Chequebook
program for managing accounts.
DISK 206 - Program Graphics
Manager. This disk will be of
special interest to anyone who has
toyed with programming graphics
on their C64. This system uses a
library of fast machine code
routines that may be accessed from
your own BASIC programs.
Features include bitmap manipu-
lation, multiple character sets, 14
sprites on screen, using hidden
RAM for character and bitmap
data, and much more. Why
re-invent the wheel?
DISK 208 - Astronomy. This
disk contains a great deal of
information about the solar system
and neighbouring galaxies.
AMIGA Review
79
Animated displays of planetary
orbits and a large database of
information are included.
DISK 209 - Mega Dump. No,
Mega Dump is not a database of
Melbourne [The editorial staff of
Amiga Review would like to
distance ourselves from this state-
ment. Hate mail to Owen, please.
td].
It's a program to allow the
viewing and printing of pictures
from many different formats,
including Saracen, Koala, Ad-
vanced Art Studio and even the
now infamous FLI graphics. Will
print with most Commodore-
compatible 9-pin printers. Also
included on the disk are ten
impressive pictures to goggle at
and print.
DISK 215 - Business Letteis.
As any business person will tell
you, the writing of correspondence
is a time-wasting evil. This disk
can remove at least some of the
hassle.
Included are over 100
pre-written business letters that
have been converted from the
world of IBM. Subjects include
Reminders, Apologies, Com-
plaints, and my personal favourite
- Overdue Accounts. These files
will load into most word
processors with the greatest of
ease, but also included is a basic
word processor (named Big
Editor) that will allow the loading,
editing and printing of these and
other files.
If you'd like to order any of the
abovementioned programs, contact
Brunswick Publications by writing
to: PO Box 745, Campsie NSW
2194. All disks are S5.00 each. For
a free printed catalogue, simply
write to Brunswick requesting one.
Printer Problems
D.R. Cooper of Wauchope
NSW writes:
Dear Owen, I am writing to
seek help with a GEOS problem.
My first printer was a Star Gemini
10X. When I first bought it in 1984
I bought with it a very simple
interface. Using that combination,
GEOS worked quite well.
A couple of years ago I sold
the Gemini 10X and bought an
LC-lOlf printer. There were a
couple of things the original
interface wouldn't do, so I sold it
with the 10X and brought an Xetec
Super Graphix Interface which has
various DIP switch settings to
allow use with various printers.
This is where my two troubles
started.
A) The LC-WII printer is not
specifically listed in the instruc-
tions in the interface manual. The
DIP switch settings for the other
Star printers do not work with my
word processor (a Write Now!
cartridge), for which I have to set
all switches to the Up position.
So far as the instructions are
concerned, that is the setting for a
daisy wheel printer. When using a
small spreadsheet program which
I copied out of RUN magazine a
few years ago, I have to set the
DIP switches as for an Epson 132
column printer, to get a result.
B) The GEOS program
predates the LC-10H printer,
which is therefore not listed among
the printer drivers there either. The
Gemini 10X driver, and the Star
LC-10 drivers don't appear to
work.
The problem is that the
interface seems to require different
DIP switch settings, depending on
what program it is working with,
and there are so many possible
combinations of GEOS drivers and
interface switch settings that I
haven 't a hope of finding the right
one by trial and error.
Since it's a relatively new
model, I'm not familiar with the
LC-10IL but the first thing to
check for is DIP switches on the
printer itself. These can vary from
printer to printer. Almost all will
have settings for changing line-
feed/carriage return combin- ation,
but many have extra settings
controlling fonts and possibly
emulation modes.
Check your printer's manual
for any mention of setting up your
printer to emulate another, such as
an Epson or IBM, Also check the
manual's recommended settings
for dip switches on the printer
itself.
If you have no luck in finding
an emulation mode for your
printer, try setting up your inter-
face and GEOS to behave as if you
hadaStarNXlO.
Failing that, set your interface
to behave as an Epson, and use the
Star driver that most closely
matches your printer. If this still
doesn't work, try setting up the
Comm- odore Compatible driver
in GEOS and experiment with the
DIP switches on the Interface.
You shouldn 't have to
constantly change interface DIP
switch settings between programs.
Keep in mind that most word
processors also have options to set
up depending on your printer type.
Again, begin trying the Epson
drivers, as these are usually the
most compatible. If any reader has
had success in setting up this
equipment, drop me a line.
That just about wraps up this
edition of The C64 Column. As
always, I'd love to hear from you.
Drop me a line care of:
The C64 Column,
PO Box 288, Gladesvitte,
NSW 2111.
Modem users can also reach
me at Fido 3:7131888.999.
□
80
AMIGA Review
Golden Gate
Bridgeboard for A4000/3000/2000
486LC2/50Mhz $1599
Fastest bridgeboard available!
Upgrade 386/486 Bridgeboard to 50Mhz - Call
ATonce-PlusV3 286/16Mhz IBM AT-Emulator
Amiga 2000/500 $249
30 times faster than PC-Task
Syquest3.5" SCSI-H removable hard drive
270Mb $749* 105Mb $549
New Release
CD32 Communicator
Interface any Amiga with the CD32
Photo Lite CD
Photo CD Presentation Package
for the CD32, A1200 and A4000
Phone for brochures and 94 price list_on disk
Fonhof Computer Supplies
64 Cross Street, Baulkham Hills NSW 2153
Phone (02) 639 7718 Fax (02) 639 5995
Amiga
Computa Magic
44 Pascoe Vale Road Moonee Ponds VIC 3039
Phone (03) 326 0133 Fax (03) 370 8352
NEW * NEW * NEW • NEW ■ NEW - NEW
DKB 1240 - 6803OEC 40Mhz for A1 200 ■ $649
DKB 1 240 + 4Mb RAM - $959
DKB 1 240 + 33Mhz 68882 - $759
DKB 1 240 + 4Mb RAM + 33Mhz 68882 - $1 059
TRUE SCSI option - coming soon - $289
Power High Density Drives • internal or external - $caJI
Disk Expander software - call
DKB 1 202 - with or without 68882 • new lower prices
MIGRAPH colour flat bed scanners, with colour kit
pro and OCR software
MS1200- MS2400 $ NEW LOWER PRICING
Colourburst Hand Scanner - $979
Golden Image RAM Expansion • A500/600/1 200
(PCMCIA) and A2000/.3000
Amiga Brush Pen back in stock • Axelen Mouse - $LOW
New products arrive daily - call us for details
We also stock PC products, optical mouse, CD-ROM drives,
sound cards, hand scanners, video cards and much more.
ADPro 2.5
New user interface as well as more loaders,
savers and operators, and over 100 pre-written
ARexx scripts. Features include:
• Choice & intermixing of list or button oriented GUI
Faster to work with
• Image rendering on same screen as user interface
• Support for FARGO Primera dye sublimation printer
• New formats for the optional Pro Conversion Pack
A-Max IV Colo(u)r
The two most requested improvements to A-Max;
colour and multi-tasking of Mac/ Amiga sessions
Display devices can be several ECS or AGA screens
Uses standard 2.1 Amiga drivers for storage & I/O devices
Accesses Mac SCSI devices through your SCSI controller
Saves Image Writer 9 and 24-pin output as Amiga IFF
Supports text cut and paste between Clipboard & Finder
Requires min. 68020, System 7.1, 2Mb free RAM, WB 2.1.
Brought to you by accredited dealers of
D^liimUtiliiim
PO Box 3053 Manuka ACT 2603 Tel (06)239 6658 Fax 239 6619
BBS now online with Xenolink software (06) 239 6659
fe J
Computer
affair
L A
Love at first byte
* Amiga Specialist
* Education Systems & Training
* Small Business Solutions
* Home Office Computer Systems
* Networking & Communications
* Desktop Publishing & Video
* CD-ROM & MultiMedia Solutions
337 Penshurst St., Willoughby 2068
Tel: 02-417-5155 Fox: 02-417-5542
AMIGA Review
81
Imagine Objects
Five Disks • Imagine Required
Disk One : Enterprise, Chess peices,
A3000
Disk Two: Amiga 3000, very detailed
Amiga 1000., with Key caps
Disk Three: Alien drop ship, Australia,
Bed, Chair, Couch, Electric Guitar, Frog,
Person, Skull, Toothpaste
Disk Four: Train, various Trees
Disk Five: Battle Tech, Tonka Truck,
V-Tech (this disks objects are
compressed with LHARC - included, and
may require tots of memory to toad)
Entire set $19.95
or $5 each
Upper body -
structured clip art in
ProDraw format
One Disk - $5
Latest PD Games
Deluxe Galaga $5
A classic version of the
the old arcade favourite
A1200 compatible (in ECS)
Pengo 2 $5
Yes, another arcade
conversion - Fun on ice
A1 200 compatible
Space Taxi $5
Like the C64 game - a
test in dexterity
A1 200 compatible
Klondike
AGA
Three disk set • HD installable
BRILLIANT Graphics
A classic AGA version of the popular
patience style card game. Impressive
playing cards in full AGA colour.
Amiga 1 200 or 4000 required.
We also have a number of other new
strategy classic games, including
Yahtzee.
_l .
■ j
[~
;
I
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(
■ ■
I
Image
Processing
Digital Illusions is fully
functional and allows
impress image processing
and animation functions to
be executed on IFF
images. Powerful AdPro
style interface. One disk.
(HAMLAB demo inc. too)
WW I
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Database II
A collection of simple to use database
programs for maintaining all sorts of lists ■
from catalogues to clients. Flexer -
pictured above - is one of the new
programs included on release II of the
database compilation. Flexer's form-like
display makes it ideal for beginners, and
powerful enough for advanced users.
I.N.«*.I.IH.H.I,l»n»k-L*JIM.-EE
3 rati]
m urn
Done
Leve I
Scare
Top Score
1 :1
Education #5
We now have a total of six disks of
education software. Mem {a memory
game - picture above) is from education
#5 - one of five programs on the disk.
Others include Maths Adventure,
Division, Counting and Lemonade.
Education 6 has an excellent puzzle
game called OXYD.
Workbench 2.x and 3.0
Screen
Blanker
SUPER DARK 2.1
SuperDark 2.1
NEW
The ultimate screen blanker - complete
with various modules offering a wide
variety of blanking activities - highly
configurable.
Designed to avoid burn-in of static
monitor images. Requires Workbench 2.x
or better.
One Disk
NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW
Workbench 3.0
NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW
Enhancer
WB3.0 Enhancer NEW
Numerous data types, viewers, utilities
and enhancements for Workbench 3.x
machines - such as the Amiga 1 200 or
Amiga 4000. includes high-speed JPEG
and GIF viewers.
One Disk
• Expert Advice •
• Fast Service •
Mail or Telephone
Order •
008 252 879
FREE CALL
Sydney (02) 879 7455
Amiga 1200 Make It Work
Having trouble getting programs
to run on your new A1 200? This
disk gives you a number of
options to dramatically improve
compatabtiity. Simply run it first
before trying the program in
question.
MagicWB - Ideal for A 1200
Revamp your Workbench - new
icons and backdrops - slick,
clean look - needs 8 colour,
hires-laced display Ideal for
A1 200 or A4000 owners with
1 940 or better monitor.
WB2.x or better required,
HOT GAMES DISKS
- Air ACS, Missile Comma/id {Aran
style), Care Race. DownM! Racer
(Skiing)
#2 - Blackjack, Metro (Trains),
China Challenge. Klondike (21)
■ #3 - Hate (3D Perspective shoot 'am
up). Megaball Qreak-cul style game)
■ 04 - Ga!a*ian pacman. Space
Invaders and Asteroid loofc-a-likee *
"ihe classics"
■ #o - Imperlum, Msch Figrrt, SCombat
■ #6 - Chute!, Defend*:. PharoatTs
Curse. SkyFlghl. SpacaWar
■ #7 - Amiga Tanx. Gave Runner.
X-FIre, Bally iit. Uamstron,
Obees-0-Matlc
■ rfrs - Asteroids, Bug Blastar, Microbe,
Poing, Revenge oi [he Mulanl
Camels, Ring War, Trlx
* #9 ■ Pacman (brilliant copy of the
original), OmegaRace, Coliirrms,
Nebula and POD.
*#10 ■ Donkey Kong, Malaga (the
best!), Artilenje, Fleuoh
* #11 - Scorched Tanks - the Eateet
super version, 2-i players,
- Adventure 1 - Island of Mephoton,
Hascue & Jungle, Zut Alors! and
Treasure Island. Some texl based
♦ Star Trek ■ The Game, with
sound-FX, animation, point and click
Interface, various missions. 1Mb
• Balance cl Power ■ Stralegy gsrrie
tor one or two players. Control the
work) powers lo avoid nuclear war.
■ UChess - Chess game ■ Needs 4Mb
and accelerator - Idea! for A1200 or
4O0D- AGA Support.
Home OHIO*
< CAD - Five Programs: Speaker and
;:i-r:.j I JtiLH Lji, _ar.cscaoo b
Architeetual
New Database and Finance
Our popular Database and
Finance disks have been
updated with new versions of
software and new programs
including Flexer and EasyCalc.
Now they're both easier to use
and more powerful. ^■s.m'iwiB
Update NOW.
EasyCalc ->
JC-Graph
Create impressive 3D graphs-
save as IFF or object files for
Imagine and other animation
programs. Load/save and edit
data. Works with most
wordprocessors and DTP.
• Databaaa - Hyparbsse, HyperDiater,
DataEasy, Moms Manager. bBasell
' Forms Designer - Text based forms
editor,
■Genealogy 1 -A-Geneand Family
History
■ Genealogy 2 - ArJay - Up 10 1QO0
paopla h WBS.x/IMb required,
■ Home Budget - Assorted home
finance programs^
- Home Tools - Touch-Typing, simple
d&ta&ase, Furniture Helper, Resume
Maker, VCR Database, Diet Aid and
LP Database.
* Spreadsheet - Easy to use SCalc,
SPREAD and EaeyCate
■ Finance - BankH, /our Money,
Budget and Checkbook
- Test Editors - Az, UEdit, QED, DME
+ Text Editors Guide
* Wordprooessing -Text Piue.
AmigaFOX, Uner. Supeifi,etl_at,
GWPRint & Print Studio
' Protext 4.3 • Includes spell
checker, word count, footnotes,
anagrams - hundreds mors
features. Taxi only - no graphics,
■ Bowling * Keep track of bowJing
scores. 1Mb required.
Communications
■ NCOMM 3.0 ■ Shareware AREXX.
SCRIPT mg,. simple BBS mode.
* Term 3.4 - Freeware, scripting,
powerful, Z disks, hard drlva raq.
WBS.x required.
Fonts-
' CG-Foni Pack t - Suliabl* for
workbench. 2.x. and above, FmM
Copy, Professional Page, Pagesiream
and PageSetter [ti. 60 dfffereni
ConfipuG/apriic lonte-. $ disk set.
• Bit-Mapped Fan! Pack 1 - Suitable
Minimorph
Create your own
animation of
morphing just like
program costing
$100's. Well even
scan in your photos
for you and prepare
them ready tor
processing, ($5 per
orks in grey-scale
only. 1 Mb RAM
required. Powerful
reasonably easy to
learn interface, (deaf
forA120Q +
for WOrbencri 1.3. Over 40 different
fonts, ready to use dfrectJy from floppy
■ idesi for Deluxe Paint and most paint
programs, 6 Disk Sal-
Clip Art
■ Clip Art Pack 1 ■ A selection ot Wack
and while, bitmapped clips, suitable
for wordprocassing and desktop
publishing. Three disk eel - $13.50
* Structured Clip 1 - Assorted
ProDraw format dip -art.
Desktop Publiehl no
* PagsBtre&m Enhancer - requires
Pagestieam 2.x or better. New
drivers, Postscript utilities and more.
* Prolesslonal Page Enhancer -
requires PPage Sj( or better. Lots of
great genies for smart borders^
copying pages, group, special etlects.
* PageSeRer 1 .2 ■ Entry level! desktop
publishing program.
Cartoons (Require 1Mb FREE)
* Cartoon 1: Batman, Bhufllfreodk,
Stealthy
■ Cartoon £: Amy V$ Walker
■ Cartoon 3; Jugelle, Jugette 2.
Juggler 2
* Cartoon 4: Fie Combat, Siealtny
Manver H
■ Cartoon 5; 0ejS Bunny
Big Cartoons {Require 3Mb)
■ Big Cartoon 1 r Antl-LerYurKngs
■ Big Cartoon Er Coyote
■ Big Cartoon 3; PogO
" Big Cartoon 4; The Dating Game (2
disks}
■ Big Cartoon 5; Unsporting
■ Big Cartoon 6; Enterprise Docking
■ Big Cartoon 7: Bait-Masking
Education
* Education i - Elements, Draw Map,
Rubjk, Space Log, Gears
* Education 2 - daWty Well. Planets,
Life Cycles, Orbit, Enigmas, ZPIol
- Education 3 • Word Puzzle,
Crossword, Word Game. A-Sotve,
POWER LOGO!
* Education 4 - PtoWap -Two disk sat
- creates maps ot world, save in IFF
format.
* Hypertext - Create tetft files with
links to animaiion, graphics, sounds,
songs - anything (via AREXX). 1Mb S
WB2.x required.
■ Slocfcmarket Simulation - Buy and
sell shares, take out a bank overdraft,
end eventually qualify to jaing the
insiders cM>. Local 1 program to
simulate local conditions.
■ Chernisuy - Create 3D models of
different molecules
Emulation
■ Atari Emulator - German Only
■ MS-DOS Emulator ■ PC-TASK
(shareware- no write to disk) &
Transformer. Hun most MS-DOS
business software.
■ C64 Emulator ■ Hun G64 Program,
Interface G&4 Peripherals (opt.
Interface available from U.S.A. Only)
Graphics and Animation
* Graphics 1 - Still Store: For
sequencing stills for video production
* Graphics 2 - Moslra, ImageLab,
TilleGen, sMcvle, ABridge,
ScaneGeriDemo. SlldeMasier
» Graphics 3 - toon-Editor, Turbo Title.
Cyro-Anlmation Utile
r Graphics 4 - FresPainL Qraffitj,
PED t PicBasa ■ IFF Dat^jase
* MandleBrot Tools - Six Disks, Create
DISK PRICES
All our disks are covered by one
pricing schedule. All prices
includes postage, packing and
support.
Disks
Price
Cost/Disk
1
$5.00
$ 5.00
2
$ 9.50
$ 4.75
3
$13.50
$ 4.50
4
$17.00
$ 4,25
5
$20.50
$ 4.10
6
$24.00
$4.00
(for orders of 6 or more disks, each
additional disk is S3.7S) We use quality
Memorex Brand diskettes.
Price includes postage.
CO.D extra $4.75
3m&2rng shapes and patterns!
■ MinlMorph - Create your own 1 G
grey-scale morphrs, 1Mb
- AQA Demos 1 - HOlS-ACA and
AGA- Amiga Bolng.
■ MoblLel - By Spacebars ■ 3D
Animaiion, A120Q and 3000
c s ti r, ?■ r. !e
* AQA Images ■ Six disks ol hoi AGA
piccies Including 3D rendered In
Aladdin, and photos.
* Imagin* Objects 1 - Enterprise^
Ch#as Pieces, Amiga 30CH>.
Hu^Id 6nti Sfluntt
* Med 3.1 - The best Amiga low-level
sequencer - some MIDI support
* Sound Tools - Play, edii, arrange,
distort and crease IFF sound samples
■ Sound FX 1 - Fined with short, sweet
sound samples -Bells, Horns, Doos P .
■ Remix 1 ■ Two remixed music
samples - Madonna and Biaek Box
■ Tracks 1 - 17S3.. Agr*ssto-n, Angias.
Arkenoid, Atmospharlc, AxelF,
Azekev
■ Tracks 2 - Beat, Benny, Biochali,
BlochaJE, Blue Da^s, Blue Moon.
Boss, Call We, T.C-S-
■ Tracks 3 - Cloud Song. Creation 2 h
Crockets, Ear, Eleclilc Or#ams h Last
Ninja II, Megaforce, Metal Synlh
■ Tracks d - Oxygens, Piano- Pllnk.
Popcorn, RSI-Hard, Skyligrit. Smoke,
SupeBASJC. Tocatra
* TtKks 5 - BalDsnee, Bond, Fre«h
House, Lambada, PawnJ, WastaLand
* Movie Samples 'ft Disks of IFF
"Make My Day" style samples
(Tracks. S-2S also available now.)
rmprove Vour Workbench
■ AGA Utilities 1 - AGA Anim players,
picture showers, AGA disable, SIF
shower and more.
* WH1.3 Supe/dlsk - Bootable,
leady-to-run. ReadWrlie MS-DOS
disks, DIRWORK file manager,
AutoCU WB Enhancer, includes
Documentation on disk,
' WB£.x Enhancer - loons. Presets,
MAG program for appointments.
Fractal Screen Brariker, KCommodity
Auto window activation,
CkKk/Memory usage, K£y&1roke
Audible Click, GadgetlesS window
closing, Hoikay, Mouse accelerator
and much more.
' Antivirus -Latest protection using
BQQTX Tutorial on Virus Protection
and more
■ Hacker ■ Rip music from games,
create custom boot brOCks, took tor
secret massages on disks
* DOS Utilities III - All the latest PD
Uiil lieK lo uryanise your disris
■ MS-DCS Utilities - READAWRITE
and FOHMAT 720K MS-DOS Disksl
■ Hard Disk Utilities 1 - HD Backup.
Alack security, Undeieter, Disk editor.
mark out bad blocks, alter your boot
logo, find misplaced files and
HDMeim.
* Parbench - Network two Amigas via
a special Parallel cable. Ideal for
CDTV owners to u-se as a CD-ROM
drive.
Programming
■ ACE AmigaBASIC Compiler 1.1 ■
Speed lip your BASIC programs into
Cast executable binary. Includes linker
and assembler.
* Pascal - Two disks. PASCAL
Includes- PCQ compiler. A6SK,. HHnk,
Debugger, tfon, examples and PCQ
SOU'Ce,
Hot Games 1 1
Two player
fun!
• Scorched Tanks - a classic
action/stralegy game for 2-4
players.
• TNG - Star Trek strategy
game with Next Generation
scenarios.
ORDER FORM - Post to Prime Artifax, P.O. Box 388, Gladesville 2111
July ACAR
Name
Address
Post Code
Day Phone
Card No. □□□□ DOBU 0000 OOOO
ValidTo \ Visa DB/C DM/CD COD Q Cheque D
Signature
Public Domain Disks
Please bill me each month for your
NEW disk/s of the month offer : Q
I The secret agent fish with feet
just won't go away, and neither
will the lousy puns. Ignore all
these.
Ignore also the fact that the
game conies with a complete
F.I.5.H, agent kit, incorporating
various stickers and cardboard
articles.
Furthermore, ignore the grainy
digitised animated intro, which is
the same one we saw on James
Pond 2 CD-32.
All these silly trimmings
surround a rather good, if cutesy,
platform game. James Pond's
abilities have been changed again;
he's lost his telescopic midsection
but has gained the ability to sprint
up impossible slopes, walk upside
down on suitable surfaces, punch
bad guys and pick up and use
various items.
These include a variety of
crude projectiles - rocks, pieces of
cheese, fruit - a parachute-
umbrella, a fruit gun, dynamite, a
bomb - you get the picture.
Different enemies are best
squished with different weapons;
there's a certain satisfaction to
flattening an evil little bomb-
spiting mouse with a wedge of
cheese. There are also (radical
development) a whole load of
bonuses, many of which you
obtain by (another startling
advance) jumping up and bashing
the underside of bricks with your
head.
What else is different about
this game? Not a whole heap. The
graphics are still sparse but
comprehensible, with quite good
attention to detail - 1 prefer that to
the million-colour smorgasbord
attempts in games like Oscar,
where you get a migraine trying to
figure out what's where.
The animation is smooth and
speedy, which is just as well
because Pond has the usual cute
platform hero ability of moving
like a dogtrack bunny.
The sound, like the graphics, is
not very plentiful but good when it
happens. Music's good, the
sampled speech adds nothing to
the game but doesn't annoy.
The control system feels a little
squishy, but once you're
accustomed to Pond's behaviour -
how to control his headlong
plunges down slopes, how he
always jumps perpendicular to the
surface he's on - it's very playable.
You need a bit more precision than
is necessary for many platform
games - it's easy to miss things by
a pixel or two - but it's not
excessively fussy.
Thanks to Computer Affair
for our review copy.
(02)4175155
84
AMIGA Review
s
Video
^^ Make your own
Creator musk videos
By Aridrew Farrell
I Take a CD jam packed with
graphics, add your favourite music
track, and some very slick
presentation software and the
result is Video Creator. The blurb
promises you'll be making your
own professional looking music
videos in no time, and that's not
far short of what I managed to
achieve within my first hour of
tinkering.
Video Creator is somewhere
between the Red Sector Demo
Maker and Scala - it's a package
filled with the sort of graphics you
would expect to find in a
Euro-hacker demo, but the
interface is easy to use, very
powerful, and not unlike the very
popular Scala.
You'll need a mouse or
trackball to operate the program -
using the standard CD32 game
controller is out of the question.
The idea is to use the thousand
plus off the shelf images included,
or any of the several hundred
permutations of vector graphic
animations, sequenced with a good
dose of special effects all in time
to the beat of a CD or Video track
of your choice.
The amount of variety on offer
makes for hours of potential fun.
The greatest drawback is the
inability to save your finished
video unless you have a serial
connection to a regular Amiga.
When you first run the CD, the
main menu offers the choice of
viewing a short, but impressive
demo, editing, loading or saving a
video, or having the software
make some random raves for you.
The trick here is whether to select
all the various bits you need off
the Video Creator CD before
inserting your music CD, or to
play it by ear and end up in a disc
swapping frenzy.
The disc comes with only one
short music track, suitable foi
experimentation but hardly long
enough for any serious work. Once
you know your way around, and
have a bit of an idea which song
you want to put some spice into,
it's easy to select a number of
parts from the CD before flipping
over to a music disc to get them all
in the right spot.
The main edit menu is much
like Scala - with a few things
missing, and a number added. A
thumb nail of the screen appears,
following by the effect number,
description, a graphic of the effect
and the time.
At the top of the screen a time
line shows when the effect will
happen. These can be dragged
with the mouse.
AMIGA Review
85
Stringing it all together
Each event in the video is
referred to as an effect, and can be
any one of several things including
an IFF image, 3D vector
animation, 2D vector animation, or
a Quadanim. Confusingly, an
effect can also be a command to
change the settings of the current
2D or 3D vector anim or
Quad-Anim.
The images on disc range from
faces and fractals, to scenery and
borders. There's 45 Quad-anims,
which are small anim files which
can be displayed video-wall style.
You also have 45 3D vector-
objects, the sort you might find in
any good hacker demo, each with
adjustable speed on the X, Y and Z
axis.
There's also 45 2D
vector-anims, once again straight
out of hackerville, including
silouette dancing sequences.
The Quad-anims can be
displayed in any one of eight
different modes, and there are
1500 IFF images, all carefully
sorted in theme groups and
sub-groups.
Special Effects
Each event line includes an
effect type. These range from
simple transitions, such as reveal,
slide and move to more complex
actions such as peel, squeeze,
shrink, melt, or cube. There's also
a cross -fade effect, which is
limited only by the number of
colours in the source and
destination images.
The most amazing effects is
overlay. 2D and 3D vector objects,
quad anims and images can be
overlayed two at a time to create
an impressive montage of
graphics. Images can also be
colour cycled - with a number of
variations in how the colours are
moved.
Text support is minimal. You
cannot choose a font, or point size.
You simply bash in some text, and
Video Creator does the rest,
positioning it in the middle of the
screen. Text can also be overlayed
onto other effects.
Synchronisation
There are three ways to
synchronise each effects to music
or a video CD. You can physically
adjust the postion of the effect on
the time line at the top of the
screen simply by dragging the
effect number. Or you can select
the effect, hit the sychronise
button and when the CD plays the
bit you want, hit the left mouse
button to record the timing.
The last method is good in
theory, but a little more tricky in
practise. You select a range of
events or effects. Now when you
hit the synchronise button, each
effect will by synchronised one
after the other,
FMV or Genlock
The source track can be either
an audio CD, or a video CD. The
CD32's graphics are overlayed
onto the FMV image. In theory it
would also be possible to use the
CD 32 as a source on a mixer, or
perhaps as a sync to a genlock.
There's all sorts of possibilities,
many of which will open wider
once the CD32 becomes more
expandable or A1200 CD units
start shipping.
Wrap Up
The Video Creator seems well
suited to the current craze of rave
dance music clips. However, it
could be equally at home as a fun
thing to enhance the life of your
own party. Considering this is the
first commercial incarnation of the
program, Almathera have done
very well. It would be a logical
step to release the package for use
on ail AGA machines, especially
once CD-ROM support becomes
more readily available. The ability
to play ANIM files would be a
nice addition, as would better text
support. Right now, it's a fun toy
that could also be of professional
use to special effects people.
Thanks to Computer-Affair
for our review copy. For info call
(02) 4175155. RRP is $99.
86
AMIGA Review
l?j Andrew Farrett
I Until recently I was not
adequately qualified to review this
program. However, I have a
confession to make. I have seen
Noddy, the live stage show. Yes
folks, there's nothing quite like
several hundred screaming kids,
and a lesser number of bewildered
parents, packed into a tiny theatre.
Noddy, it seams, is enjoying a
politically correct revival. The
modem edition is minus the
elements that sent shock waves
through the homes of families
through-out the world - when it
was suggested Noddy was gay.
Now whether you believe such
allegations, I can assure you the
game has no such references.
Installation onto hard disk is
something of a lesson in dexterity.
Are you ready? When you get to
the animated loading screen, press
both Alt keys, FS and F6! Are
these guys serious? Anyhow, you
then enter the destination path and
al J four disks are copied to your
hard drive. Running from floppy is
possible, but a rather frustrating
amount of disk swapping is likely.
The package is basically a
bunch of very simple activities,
connected by a map to Toy land.
To move to a particular game, you
must guide Noddy in his cute little
car to the appropriate destination.
On the way you can pick up and
drop off other Toy land characters.
There's no particular purpose to
this, it's just there for fun. You can
make Noddy sound his horn,
wave, brake, nod or roar the
engine as you potter along.
When you're tired of driving, it
is possible to jump directly to the
game section using the function
keys.
Edutainment content
Each of the games begin with a
scene containing lots of little
things to click on which do
something. Nothing too enter-
taining mind you, just something...
like opening, or moving, or
blinking, or falling. Usually this is
accompanied by a sound effect,
and one of the objects will be the
way to get to the game.
There are seven games in all,
Kitchen Fun (find hidden food),
Noddy's Scales (match weights to
balance the scales), Tricky Trees
(a glorified version of Simon,
where you have to remember
sequences of notes), Can You Find
Me (find shapes and colour in a
picture), Bert's Scrapbook (sort
pictures in a scrapbook), Beach
Sorter (match animals to their kind
- mammal, reptile and so on),
Picnic Attack (stop the lobsters
from stealing Noddy's picnic).
The controls for Noddy are a
little confusing, the mouse is best
AMIGA Review
87
for playing the games, but
Noddy's car can only be driven
using the keyboard or a joystick.
Big Ears appears in the corner of
the screen to give help if required.
The games themselves are a cut
above average when It comes to
making wrong answers.
Typically, you'll be prompted
or coached to try and get the right
answer, for several tries. Only then
does the correct answer appear.
This is a step up from the simply
right or wrong approach of many
educational programs.
The three levels of difficulty
offer more than a simple increase
in the complexity of questions.
The method of solving each game
actually becomes considerably
more complex, which is why the
game spans from three to seven
year olds without too much
trouble.
All this and a
word processor!
Disk four contains a bonus -
it's a picture and word
wordprocessor. There are three
levels of operation. At the easiest,
you simply choose from a bank of
small pictures to tell a story. The
line beneath each row of images
may contain the first letter of the
picture name. At the second level,
the wordprocessor supplies a
partially spelt version of the
complete name of each picture.
You have to fill in the blanks.
On the highest levels, the
pictures are merely a reference -
you have to do all the typing. You
can load, save and print the
resulting document, which may
have many pages. It's a good,
simple package bound to help
younger ones develop word skills.
However, it lacks the bells and
whistles likely to hold the attention
span of younger minds.
Wrap Up
Overall, Noddy's Big
Adventure is a reasonably solid
package. Installed on hard disk, it
runs smoothly. From floppy, it's a
bit of a pain.
The interface is great, and the
educational value reasonably
good. It lacks a little in the long-
evity department, but the multiple
levels of difficulty will help ensure
the program lasts you a few years.
if 11 M
88
AMIGA Review
I The best ideas, and games, are
often simple. How about little
guys running around a Gridfire
style maze, dropping bombs? The
bombs blow in four directions, and
the blast stops if it hits a breakable
rock or indestructible wall or if it
just runs out of puff. You can get
bonuses (by blasting rocks) for
extra bombs at once, extra bomb
range, bombs you can trigger and
so on, and you can play with up to
five humans at once.
If a bomb blast hits another
bomb, that one goes off too,
whether it's reached the end of its
couple-second fuse or not. And if
you blast the exit transporter or a
bonus, monsters come out. That's
about it.
The DynaBlaster formula
worked well at the arcades, where
it joined the ranks of Japanese
Cute Games; being able to get four
of your friends in on the blasting is
definitely what makes it
worthwhile.
As a single player experience,
DynaBlaster's average. Instead of
evil scheming human opponents
you get computer monsters of
various levels of intelligence,
which can only kill you by running
into you. Challenging this is, when
you get into the big scrolling
levels with hordes of bad guys, but
there's not the thrill of putting ten
pounds of instant sunshine under
your best mate's behind.
How do you get five players at
once without cramming your
keyboard with humanity? Use the
parallel port adaptor supplied with
DynaBlaster, which accepts two
joysticks, making a total of four
sticks and one keyboard player.
The adaptor, which is universally
referred to on the box and in the
documentation as an "adaptator",
is also DynaBlaster's copy pro-
tection; you can't play the game
without it.
In fact, the only good reason
not to buy DynaBlaster is the
price. At $79 it's a bit on the steep
side for a simple game like this,
and you can get a very, very good
shareware imitation for about $5 to
evaluate and $US10 (or more - the
author kindly lets you send him as
much as you like!) to register,
from any PD library. Dynamite
Warriors, on Fred Fish disk 931,
doesn't have a single player
option, but it can handle five
players too if you've got one of the
old (Leatherneck) type four player
adaptors.
Dynamite Warriors isn't quite
as pretty as DynaBlaster, but there
are more interesting power-ups,
some specifically designed to
make other players miserable like
the joystick reverser and the bomb
dropping preventer.
DynaBlaster's slightly prettier,
but if you're going to buy it for the
multi- player mode (which is the
best thing about it), check out
Dynamite Warriors; $50 off is
significant!
Thanks to Amadeus Computers
on (02) 652 2712 for the review
copy.
% One toasted
bad dude, and the
one that got away!
Bonus >
Rolierskates allow
you to move faster!
1 16Q0J n' g--45( ffl-l|
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AMIGA Review
89
- ^^H
K " -:
pi
" --■ ■•
lis
V There are two sorts of Platform
Game Heroes. Super-butch heavily
armed skullcrushing maniacs, and
cute things with no sharp edges.
Mr Nutz, in case the name didn't
make it plain to you, fits in the
latter group.
The story behind this platform
game is even sillier than usual, so I
shan't bother you with it. The bad
guys are chickens, you're a
squirrel, never mind why.
As is traditional for Cute
Heroes, Mr Nutz has no gun, no
nun' a accessories, no sock full of
wet sand. He kills baddies
primarily by jumping on them,
though he can get a couple of
non-shooting accessories to make
the job easier. He can run and
jump, and he can roll up into a ball
when he's running downhill (hang
on, doesn't that sound a bit
like.,,?). Furthermore, Mr Nu1z
carries a collection of Hit Points
with him, and when he gets hit by
something they fly off. When he
runs out of Hit Points he dies, but
he can grab lost points back if he
can catch them (wait a minute,
that's just like...).
No! No! It's not Sonic the
Hedgehog! It's not! Honest!
OK, it's a bit like Sonic. Like
Sonic, Mr Nutz can't turn on a
dime, but skids a bit when he
stops. Like Sonic's levels, you can
burn through those of Mr Nutz by
just sprinting right and jumping
like crazy (you miss a lot of
bonuses and take a few hits, but
whaddaya want?).
Unlike Sonic, there are map
stages between the platform ones,
which slow the game down and
add not a lot to the gameplay. You
can't die on the map, and it
appears in a weeny little window,
so its inclusion is a bit of a
mystery. All sorts of silly
characters as well as evil chickens
show up and talk to you in the
map, and you can pick up extra
bonuses too, but other games fit all
this sort of stuff into the action.
On the plus side, there's no
time limit, so you can inch through
the levels to get them absolutely
perfect. You can also fly if you get
the right bonuses and have enough
Hit Points; flight ranges from
simple gliding to complete
aerobatics depending on how
powered-up you are, and is huge
fun once you master the rather
puzzling control system.
The ECS graphics are clear and
colourful, the sound's good, the
music's pretty funky and once
you're used to the squish y feeling
control it's quite playable.
Revolutionary? No. Worth a look?
Yes.
For more information contact
Sega-Ozisoft on (02) 317 0000.
90
AMIGAReview
•>*^^^-i&^F .
SIR R TREK
SS m RNNMRSRRH
I The USS Enterprise, all yours.
Kirk may be sitting in the big
chair, but you're holding the reins
and controlling the destiny of the
crew as they blast their way
through the galaxy (this is the
original series, not that new age
Next Generation powder-puff
convention).
When you beam down, you're
in charge of Jim, Bones and Spock
and tell them what to do to solve
various puzzles.
On the face of it, it looks a
winner. The PC version was. The
mouse-driven graphic adventure
interface was criticised by some as
a bit clunky, but I didn't mind it.
The graphics in both 25th Anni-
versary and its sequel, Judgement
Rites, were clear, the gameplay
interesting without being overly
difficult and the open-ended, finish
any way you like format makes it
worth playing over and over, to get
the scenerios done better and
better. The dialogue's brilliant,
too; the programmers obviously
watched a few episodes and got
the series* tone down perfectly.
But I reckon the Amiga version
stinks.
Why? Sheer laziness on the
part of the coders. The graphics
have been ported straight from 256
colour VGA to 256 colour AGA -
nothing wrong with that. The
AMIGA Review
music was lousy to start with and
so hasn't lost much; the sparse
sound effects are acceptable. But
the interface is useless, because
whatever person at Interplay was
responsible for porting the game
over was evidently unaware that
the Amiga has mouse support built
in.
So instead of using the
perfectly comprehensible, logical
and universally accepted internal
mouse routines, this guy rolled his
own, which are paralytically slow.
The mouse movement matches
the rest of the game; on a 1200
with fast RAM it's better than
Valium and not much better on a
40MHz 030.
You can't fight a space battle
when the ship steers like a
supertanker, and it's hard to snap
off a perfect phaser shot when the
pointer appears to be made of lead
and connected to the mouse with a
rubber band.
If you are patient, dextrous and
desperate to see an improbably
trim William Shatner on your
computer screen, check Star Trek:
25th Anniversary out. Otherwise,
it's a sad case of close but no
cigar.
If you really feel compelled to
go out and buy it, then call Sega-
Ozisoft on (02) 317 0000.
•
5 i*4
It ■ J^: : "^: : ;:.^"r^'V: f :- . •■■ vv'
■
704 x 566, 24bit, rendered in Imagine.
By Mark Johnson, Video Pixel.
Welcome to the new BIGGER Amiga
Art Gallery. With the increased size
of Amiga review, we have also
increased the size of our Art Gallery.
So, if you have some graphic art to
contribute, why not shoot us a disk -
or modem the file to our simple BBS
on (02) 816 4714.
Please include your name, tel no and how
you created the image in a text file.
800 x 600, 24bit, rendered in Imagine 3,
By Colin Chung.
736 x 566, 24bit, rendered in Imagine.
By Colin Baggarley.
f £
1280 x 256, HAM8, rendered by David Kennedy.
352 x 566, EHB, hand drawn.
640 x 512, 24bit, rendered in Imagine 3.
By Colin Chung.
L
640 x 512, 24bit, rendered in Imagine 2.
By Perry Wong.
736 x 566, 24bit, rendered in Real 3D 1.42.
By Ivan Smith. The new A5000?
704 x 562, 24bit, rendered in
Imagine 2.9. By David Woolley.
^■H
:
, :
.....
m
704 x 566, 24bit, rendered in Imagine 2.
By Steven Pronger.
1 7
trf
640 x 512, HAM8, rendered in
Imagine 2. By Perry Wong.
704 x 566, 24bit, rendered in
Imagine 2. By Steven Pronger.
640 x 512, 256 colours, hand drawn.
576 x 768, 24bit, Opal paint and Vista Pro.
By Mark Johnson, Video Pixel.
704 x 566, 24bit, rendered in Imagine 2.0 with
Essence and AdPro 2. By Steven Pronger.
>_
&T
,^alB
|L.
k^ 1 .
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■H r
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640 x 512, 256 colours, ray trace.
DKB A1202
• Handles 1, 2, 4, 5,6 & 8 MB of 32bit RAM
• Features 2 SIMM sockets for better flexibility
• Includes built in real-time battery backed clock
• Fits into the A1200 Trapdoor for easy installation
• Co-Processor socket for 68881 or 68882
A1202 without Co-Processor 0MB $199.00
A1202 with 68882 @ 20MHz 0MB $249.00
A1202 with 68882 @ 20MHz 4MB $549.00
The Ultimate
Video System
v;)< Ai/tsion
DKB1202
• Fast SCSI II DMA controller
• Full 32bit Zorro 111 card
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Now only $ 679.00
• 24 Bit Display
• 24 Bit Paint Package
• 24 Bit Animation
• Now with FREE Montage 24
• Optional Expansion Modules |
Call Today for a Demo
C* Productivity Software
Adorage V2.0 AGA $1 95.00
AMOS Pro Com piier $ 69.95
AMOS Professional $109.00
AMOS 3D I 66.95
Aladdin 4D V3.0 f429.0O
Ami-Back 2.0 $ 67.95
Ami -Back Pi js Tools $109.00
Ami-Back Tools S 69.95
Amiga Vision Professional $139.00
Anim Workshop $ B9.9S
Anim Workshop V2 $149.00
Art Department Abekas Driver $209.00
Art Department CGM Loader $ 69.95
Art Department Conversion Pack V2.5 $ 79.95
Art Department Epson Drivers V3 $195.00
Art Department HP Drivers $249,00
Art Department Multiframe $125.00
Art Department Pro V2.5 $299.00
Art Department Pro Control $ 89.95
Art Department Sharp JX1 00 $135.00
Art Department Tools Pro V2.0 SI 99.00
Art Expression $259,00
Bars a Pipes Creativity Kit $ 69. 95
Bars & -'pes Vi, t yen a K'T $ 59,95
Bars & Pipes Pro Studio Kit $ 69.95
Bars & Pipes Professional II $399.00
Bars & Pipes Rules For Tools $72.50
Blitz Basic V2 |l 69.00
BoardMaster $ 97.50
Brilliance $210,00
B roadcast Till e r 2 Hi-Pi es $369.00
Calagari 24 $465.00
Calculus s 59.95
Can Do V2.5 $209.00
Cinemorph $ 99.00
ClarlSSA . 3J19S.OO
CNetV3 t $219.00
Cocoon Morph $ 69.95
Contact V2.0 | 74,00
Cross Dos V5.0 / Cross PC § 59.95
Cycteman (Suit imagine) $ 69.95
Cyelemusd as ( Su it "m agin e ) $169.00
Cygnus Ed ProfessionarV3.5 $1 09.00
Deluxe M usic V2 $165.00
Deluxe Paint 4.1 £ 94,95
Del uxe Paint 4. 5 AG A $139.00
Directory Opus V4. 1 1 $105.00
DrWors'2 $ 84.95
Distant Suns V5 f 96.95
Easy AMOS $ 84.95
Edge §109.00
Electric Thesaurus $ 56.95
Essence for Imagine $ 74.95
Final Copy H (Australian Version) $139.00
Final Writer (Australian Version) $209,00
Fontasia 300 CG Fonts $ 75.00
Fred Fish CDTV $ 79.95
■GigaMemVS $159.00
Ginseng Collection S 65.00
Hisoft Dev Pack 3 $1 19.00
' Home Office Kit Deluxe $1 85.00
Hoopy Paint $ 59.95
Humanoid V 1 .0 ( Su it Imagine) $269.00
Hypercache Pro $ 54.95
* Prices with NEW or CALL were unknown
CD 32 Best Sellers
$129.00
AMIGA tSOP w
The Chaos [mm
fc la, ?1
$64.95
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EE23E:
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Image FX V1 .5
Imagsmaster R/T 1.0
Imagine V3
Imagine Diner Objects
Interchange Plus V3
Intro Cad Plus
Kind Words 3
Mao to DOS
Magic Lantern
Mapmaster (Suit Imagine)
Map Studio (Suit Imagine)
Max. Plan 4
Media Point 3.0
Mini Office
Montage 24
Montage Fontpack 1
Montage Postscript Module
Morph plus
Morphus for Imagine
No Virus
PC-Task (Supports 256 Colour VGA)
PageStream HotLinks V1 1
Pagesetter V3
PageStream Font Classic
PageStream Font Newsletter
at the time of publication.
S429.00
§275.00
$699.00
S 54.95
! 189.00
S4.95
119.00
135.00
99.95
69.95
59.95
169.95
389.00
139.00
429.00
S209.00
S305.00
S219.00
S109.00
S 29.95
S 49.95
3139.00
S 99.95
S199.00
S114.00
PageStream Font Pack 1
PageStream V2.2 & 47 Fonts
PageStream V3
Pascal High Speed
Panorama V3
Patch Meisler (Bars 5 Pipes)
Peoqer JPe- Utility
Personal Paint 4
Pelican Press
PhotoworX
Pixel 3D & Anim Workshop Pack
Playrnation
Power Copy Professional V3.03a
Power Packer Professional V4
Printmaster Plus
Pro Fonts Volume 1 (Suit ProWrite)
Pro Fonts Volume 2 (Suit ProWrite)
ProWrite 3.3
Professional Calc V2 AGA
Professional Draw V3.0
Professional Page 3.0
Professional Page V4.1
Proper G rammer It
Quarterback Tools Deluxe
Quarterback V6
Quickbrush
Qiiir.kWrle
Real 3D V2
SAS C V6.5 Dev System
Scala HT
Scala MM210
Scala MM 300
Scafa EE100 Echo (Suit MM30G)
Scala Art Library Vol 2
Scala Art Library Vol 3
Scala Music Pack
Scapemaker V3.0
Scenery Animator V4
SoflCllpart Animals
SoftClipart Classic
SoftClipart Ccllocto-s
SoftClipart People
SoitFaces Vol 1 ,2,3,4 (each)
Studio Printe-' Software
Super Desk Jet Drivers V2
Super Jam VI .1
Superbase Persona! II
Sup er base Personal 4
Superbase Pro 4 V1 .3
Tapeworm
TAKE 2
TV Paint (IV24 or Retina)
True Print 24
TypeSmith V2
Video Director
Virtual Reality Studio V2
Visional re
Vista Lite
Vista Pro 3
Vista Pro 3 Lite
World Atlas 2.5
Wordworth V3 ASA
Your Family Tree
AUTHORISED I
Commodore
DEALER
LA Y-BY
AVAILABLE
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Dedicated to the Amiga & its
Melway Ref: Page 51 A8
Accelerators & RAM
Expansion
I A500/600:
■ A500 51 Sk RAM Expansion w/ No Clock $ 49-
I • A600 1 MB RAM Expansion w/ Clock $ 119-
■ A600 16bit PCMCIA Credit Card RAM 2MB $ 269-
' G VP A530+ '030 40 MHz 1 MB R AM from $ 999-
■ VXL 030 25 MHz No Co Pro 0MB $ 326-
| • VXL 030 25 Mhz w/ 68832 Co-Pro $ 525-
■ VXL 32bit RAM 2MB (Suit above VXL 030) $ 529-
IA1200:
• GVP A1 200 SCSI Ctr w/ No Co-Pro & 1 MB $ 499-
| • GVP A1 200 SCSI Ctr w/ 33Hz 68882 & 4MB $ 949-
■ GVP A1 230 Series II (New Model) See Box Below
> Microbotics M8X1 200z w/ 68681 & Clock 0MB $ 275-
• DKB 1202 w/ B8862 & Clock 0MB (2 SIMM Sockets!) $CALL
I A2000:
• GVP G-Force 030 40MHz w/ 68882 & 4MB $1 299-
| • GVP G-Force 040 33 MHz w/ 4 MB 60ns RAM $1 999-
A4000:
■ DKB 3128 Ram Exp up to 128MB 32bit RAM SCALL
I • DKB 4091 SCSI-1! Expansion Card S 679-
• GVP A400B HardCard Up to 8MB 1 6blt RAM $ 315-
| • Fastlane SCSI II Expansion Card
■ Commodore 25MHz '040 Card (as traded) $ 995-
• GVP 40MHz '040 Up to 32 MB 32bit RAM S2695-
[ A50Q/A2000 Chip RAM Expansion:
• DKB MegaChip board S 369-
Maestro
/rlL/L#C7##->
14.4 Kbps with Fax & GPFax
Only $499.00
28.8 Kbps with Fax
New $799.00
Quality Genlocks for
the Video Enthusiast
• PAL Composite Genlock
• PAL Y-C Composite Genlock $ 775-
• PAL Sirius Genlock $1 425-
• PAL Neptune Genlock SNEW
• Call into our showroom for a demo
PtBfOEMA UCt
HGVP
• 40 MHz'040 with 4MB 60ns RAM
• Up to 32MB RAM on main board
• Up to 96MB RAM on opt. module
• Opt. FAST SCSI I! DMA module
• Suit A3000/3000T/4000/4000(T)
Only $2695-
»A1230/030/40MHz/4MB $ 995-
• A1 230/030/50MHZ/4MB $1 375-
• SCSI Kit suit above
• FPU Kit 68882 40MHz Scheap
• FPU Kit 68882 50MHz Scheap
(to suit A1200)
• Biindingiy fast 24 Bit Display Card
• Zorro II orZorro III operation
• PassThru for single monitor use
• Up to 1 600 x 1280 in 256 colours
• Complete with 2MB video RAM
Only $995-
Broadcast
Quality
you can
afford !!
• Time Base Corrector
• 24 Bit Framegrabber
• Video standards converter
New Lower Pricing
This Ad was produced entirely using Amigas *AJ1 Prices Subject to Change Without Notice
Dorset Road,
Postal Address: P.O. Box 627, Croydon, Victoria 31
DISK
EXFJnDER
Double your Hard Disk
capacity using the latest in
j file compression software.
Only$ 76.50
P n*ri Computing ltd
Power Drive HD Floppy
• Utilise up to 1.76MB per disk
- UseMS-Dos 1.44MB disks
> Compatible with PC-Task
Only $299.00
How to
Order
"Its Easy"
We Accept
Cash, Cheque, Bankcard, Visa,
Mastercard, Money Order or Di-
rect Deposit. Please call for cur-
rent freight charges.
VISA
e m
Bam
Phone, write, fax or come and see
us in our showroom. Please in-
clude phone number when writng
or faxing. All letters will be an-
swered.
*Please do not send cash through the mail
.Across Australia
^ -'Far orders overaiCO ■ \
X?
COMMODOREAMIGA
RAM & DISK DRIVES
External Disk Drive 149
A500 Internal Drive 160
High Density Floppy Drive Ex 269
High Density Floppy Drive Internal
forA1200,A20D0.A500
Requires Kickstart V2.0 or above, r 239
Can also act as Standby 880K J
A500- 512Kb Ram No Clock 48
A500- 512Kb Ram Clock 65
A600 1Mb Ram Clock 99
Chip Ex 2Mb Chip Ram with Agnus 289
MBX 1 200 Ram Card 68881 0Kb 249
MBX 1 200 Ram Card 68881 2Mb 449
MBX 1 200 Ram Card 68881 4Mb 549
A1200 Ram Card 0Kb No FPU 179
A1200 Ram Card 2Mb No FPU 349
A1200 Ram Card 4Mb 479
MBx123o-50MHZ+5uMHZvFPU4Mb 1399
GVP1230A+ 50MHZ+4mbRAM 1300
DKB 12Q2C Ram card and Copro 249
DKB 1202 Ram card plus clock 179
We can supply SCSI or IDE
3.5" HARD DRIVES
SCSI 127 Meg
299
340
629
450
799
540
999
IDE 130
349
251
399
340
449
450
499
540
579
2.5" IDE INTERNAL HD
Hard drives for the A600/A1200,
40MB INTERNAL HD 249
60MB INTERNAL HD 299
85MB INTERNAL HD 385
120MB INTERNAL HD 450
200MB INTERNAL HD 599
251MB INTERNAL HD CALL
NEW 340Mb INTERNAL HD 749
1 Commodore CD32 Titles
VIDEO ITEMS
Nigel Mansell
49
Dank
59
RomboVIDM2
229
Sensible Soccer
49
Fury of the Furries
59
RomboVIDI 12 Real Time
429
Morph
Alfred Chicken
49
49
Fuzz Ball
Oscar
RomboVIDI24AGA
629
Arabian Nights
49
Pinball Fantasies
59
VLAB YC Framegrabber
679
Deep Core
49
Premiere
59
VLAB External A1 200
549
Fly Harder
Mean Arenas
49
49
Zool 1 & 2 Ea
Naughty Ones
59
Electronic Design Y/C Genlock
699
Overkill/Lunar-C
49
Lemmings
59
Sirius Genlocks
1399
Summer Olympics
49
Gunship2000
59
PAL Genlock
499
Alien Breed/Owak
Bubba 'ft Srix
52
59
Global Effect
Elite II -
59
Due
Picasso II 24 Bit Card Retarget
1059
Castle 2
59
Legacy of Sorasil
Picallo 24 Bit Card + VID
1159
Chambers of Shaolin
55
Gulp
GVPEGS Spectrum 2MB
975
Chaos Engiie
Chuck Rock
59
45
Lost Vikings -
Flambo Quest
Due
GVP G-Lock VGA
2149
Generation
52
Games and Goodies Ea 45
GVP TBC Plus NO SMPTE
1640
Dangerous Street
55
Utopia 2 - Soon
GVP G-lock only
679
Dennis
59
That's what I call Games 1 & 2 Ea 4:
Disposable Hero
59
Myth
Fire Force
55
Whale's Voyage
55
CHIPS AND SPARES
International Karate
Jamb a la
59
52
Exile
Super Methane Brothe
59
We stock a wide range of parts
James Pond 2
49
and spares
Labyrinth ot Time
59
Due Soon
Optical Mice
$69.95
Liberation
59
Pinkie - Daggers - Arcade
Mouse
$29.99
Lotus Trilogy
Microcosm
Nick Faldo's Golf
59
99
59
Pool - Battel Toad - Brutal
Soccer - Cannon Fodder -
Gulp - Impossible Mission -
Little Devil - Sabre Team -
2MB x 8 SIMM GVP Impact 2000
4MB x 8 SIMM GVP Impact 2000
95
295
Pirates Gold
59
SIMM 32 x1MB -60 GVP
149
Prey
59
Second Samurai - Kick Off 3
SIMM 32 x 4MB -60 GVP
389
Project-X/F17 Challenge 59
1MB SIMM X1 A4000/1200
129
Putty
Seek and Destroy
13
55
A570 Titles
$
4MB SIMM X4A4000/1200
300
Trivial Pursuit
59
17BitPD1+2Ea$48
90
2MB RAM 44256 for A590/2000
160
Trails
49
17 Bit Continuation
CDPD*
CD PD 2
45
1MBX1 RAM
CALL
Sleep Walker
52
45
45
45
4MB ZIPS for A3000
360
Total Carnage
American Football
49
59
CD PD 3 *
PCMCIA 2MB
229
Defender of the Crown
Demo CD
45
PCMCIA4MB
389
Genesis -
Soon
Demo CD 2 *
45
V1 .3 KICKSTART ROM
29
Golden Collection Comp
Soon
Multimedia Toolkit *
Aminet CD
Lock 'if Load *
CD Remix V2 *
45
45
45
39
V2.C5 KICKSTART ROM
CALL
Grolier Encycloqedia - I n now
Guiness Disk of Records II
Humans l & II
FAT AGNUS 8372 1 meg
BIG FAT AGNUS 8375 2 meg
CALL
75
Insight Technology
69
Battle Chess
79
HI-RES SUPER DENISE
49
Lion Heart ■
Soon
Battle Storm
59
GARY
20
No Second Prize
Ryder Cup Golf
Soccer Kid
59
Defender of the Crown
Fractual Universe
Lemmings
69
59
59
PAULA
CIA 8520 CHIP
49
50
Treasure of the Silver Lake
NASA Space
59
A500 POWER SUPPLY
99
Winter Sports
79
American Vista Atlas
99
MODEM CABLE
9.99
Battle Chess
59
World Atlas
Fresh Fish
Grolier Encyclopaedia
EuroScience - 1
99
PRINTER CABLE
9.99
Beavers
Last Ninja/Surf
Inferno - Soon
59
59
60
SCSI CABLE
SWITCHBOARD FOR 204-1.3
9.99
30
Brutal Sports
58
* Will Work on CD 32
SKIMS SUIT ALL AMIGAS
32
Bubble and Squeak
58
Chuck Rock 2
58
We will do
MODFMS
Fire and Ice
Impossible Mission -
58
Due
Trade-ins on CDs
Maestro 1440 Data/faxmodem 475
Interlink Voidax II Data/FaxA/oice 629
CD Rom £
lift A
mica NEC Drive
Interlink Voidex III Data/Fax/Voice 789
Driver for Am
iga Format $90
CDR 25 external
$299
CD32 expansion SXI Soon
CDR210
$799
Disk expander doubles the capacity on
CD 32 Console
CALL
HD and floppies
PCMCIA Interface for CD
A570
CALL
Special Cables fore CD32
NEC Dual/Tripple
????
Computer Man
61 1 Beaufort St. Mt. Lawley Perth WA 6050
(09)328 9062 (018)911 011
Live Music
Archive
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Understanding
9/11